Papa Penny plans to be the last one laughing where his funeral cover is concerned and for everyone who thought it was a joke, the reality TV star says his increasing client base and popularity should let them know he’s not here for games.

Speaking to reporters on his entrepreneurial journey, Papa Penny explained that while he may seem like a “liker of things” now, he has always had a business mind and he wasn’t afraid of taking risks.

“I was a businessman before I was Penny Penny. Long before people knew who I was, I had businesses in Johannesburg, a restaurant and before that I sold vegetables on the street. The one thing I always understood is that a person needs to have multiple streams of income, and I always made sure,” Papa Penny said.

The Tsonga disco music icon said a lot of people mocked him about his Penny Penny Funeral Cover. He explained that people said he had no idea what he was doing and knew nothing about the insurance industry.

However, he was determined to prove them wrong and he thinks he’s well on his way.

“The idea to start this came to me one day. I thought: why are all these insurances owned by white people, most of them foreigners who have big houses in Cape Town that they visit? Why not have funeral covers that are from home, from someone who understands what death is to us as black people and how we deal with it and what we need the most? Who said insurance must be owned by whites only? So I started one and I haven’t looked back since we opened last year.”

Papa Penny shared that he’s now employed over 28 call centre agents and he planned on hiring more soon. And, while the call centre is still only in Braamfontein at the moment, his plan was to have one in every province.

The reality TV star told reporters that if all goes according to plan, he would also hire people to go door to door and make people aware of the funeral cover.

He said while his clientele had increased, it could do better but he wasn’t going to rush the process. 

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