Bifm – Botswana Insurance Fund Management - is a wholly owned subsidiary of Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL).
BIHL is one of the top five listed companies on the Botswana Stock Exchange. Its controlling shareholder (54%) is Sanlam, a South African-based company. The remaining 46% is held by the Botswana public.
Bifm was founded in 1975 as Botswana’s first “Fund” manager. Its establishment coincided with the start of a period of tremendous growth in the Botswana economy. This accelerated as the years went by, as is illustrated by the fact that in 1998 the company was handling around P770-million in investments. By 2001 this had more than doubled to some P2-billion. Today, the P2-billion has grown to over P15 billion.
Based in Botswana, Bifm has an operation in Zambia that currently trades under the name ‘Aflife Zambia’. In line with Bifm’s commitment to local empowerment, 30% of Aflife Zambia is owned by Zambian citizens.
During the past 31 years, Bifm has become Botswana’s largest Asset Management service provider. With over P15-billion in assets under management, Bifm is effectively responsible for some 60% of all non-government contractual savings managed in the entire country.
This includes the assets of pension funds with a total membership of more than 26 000, as well as life assurance, medical aid funds and other corporate funds.