Ever heard the phrase “The journey never ends”? Some even composed songs about it, and we are quite certain there’s a story behind this expression. Let the truth be told, every journey has a story; good or bad. We always refer to the Roots and Wings as a journey and not a program, because the stories and learnings exchanged in every session never come to an end. This journey is already in its maturing phase, yet still unbelievably relevant and has produced titans amongst the insurance industry.
Through the Roots and Wings journey, the IIG has been responsibly turning young professionals into big giants within the insurance industry and enabling the rich history of key industry players to contribute towards the ecosystem within the financial services space. As a result, the industry is building capabilities to respond to microeconomic challenges faced by the South African insurance market.
This remarkable contribution has attracted interest from other parts of our continent and the IIG was the first to experience the Roots and Wings grow wings internationally. The IIG is pleased to announce that Roots and Wings International was officially launched on 12 May 2023 in association with Emerald Risk Transfer (PTY) Ltd. Did you get that? We have gone international! The Root and Wings International was successfully launched through the Zoom online platform and all our mentees are from outside South Africa; whilst all their mentors are in Gauteng.
As always, our stakeholders and long-term Root and Wings partners Linda Coetzee and Associate professionally facilitated the entire programme effortlessly online for about two hours in the presence of all our new mentors, mentees and a sizeable number of the IIG councilors. The launch was graced by our beautiful IIG president Simphiwe Mtyali, who shared words of wisdom and incredible testament with our international cohort and their mentors. The mentees have been equipped with knowledge regarding the journey ahead and importantly; they have been reassured of the enormous support they will receive throughout their new endeavor. As tradition, the magical pairing moment of mentees and their mentors was done before the meeting was adjourned and it was spot on. All mentors will be facilitating their monthly mentoring sessions via online platforms and truth be told, as the IIG Roots and Wings team, we cannot wait for their first review session to take place in a few months.
The IIG Roots and Wings International has gained incredible talent from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Kenya and we continue to look forward to expanding our footprint all over the African continent. The IIG Roots and Wings journey will continue to effectively add value to the international insurance market through impartation of knowledge, co-creating powerful collaborations and networking. We look forward to seeing how the African Insurance Market will be united through the Roots and Wings International journey.
#BreakTheMould….Internationally!
The Roots and Wings programme will eternally be grateful to our long-standing great partners; Insurance Institute of Gauteng (IIG), Discovery Limited, Sasria SOC Limited, Chubb, Emerald Risk Transfer (Pty) Ltd and Howden Broking (Insurance)
Article written by: Thuso Mafumo
