African insurers converge in Accra to plot industry growth

By Elliot WILLIAMS

Ghana is currently hosting the five day long 4^th Africa Network of Insurers Associations (ANIA) Annual General Meeting and conference.

The meeting is taking place at Insurance House, the head office of the Ghana Insurers Association, in Accra. The ongoing meeting is discussing strategies for strengthening the continent’s insurance sector and expanding market penetration.

Opened on Monday, March 9, the meeting brings together insurance companies, regulators, brokers, industry associations, policy makers, and development partners, to deliberate on the challenges and opportunities shaping Africa’s insurance landscape.

ANIA was established in 2022 and was ratified by the African Insurance Organization (AIO) in 2023. It seeks to promote collaboration among insurers associations across the continent.

The opening ceremony was chaired by Dr Abiba Zakariah, Ghana’s Commissioner of Insurance. She noted that ANIA provides an important platform for sharing knowledge and developing strategies to strengthen insurance markets in Africa, which aligns with the international outlook of Ghana’s insurance industry. She however pointed to several challenges confronting the sector.

One is the lack of financial capacity of many local insurers to underwrite large or complex risks, forcing them to depend on foreign reinsurers which often results in significant outflows of reinsurance premiums from the continent.

Another is the slow pace of innovation in the industry leaving many insurers to continue relying on traditional distribution channels that are unable to respond adequately to emerging risks and the evolving needs of consumers.

Another is the low insurance penetration which is just about 3% on the continent, far below the global average of about 7.4%. This gap is largely due to limited financial literacy, low demand for insurance products and persistent mistrust of insurance services among sections of the public, a situation she called on ANIA to address.

She further noted that the African insurance market is highly concentrated in a few countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius and Morocco, while several others including Ghana remain below the continental average.

The keynote address at the meeting’s opening was delivered by Mr Louis Kwame Amo, the Director of the Financial Sector Division at the Ministry of Finance. He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening Ghana’s financial sector and supporting the development of a resilient insurance industry.

He  noted that to this end, in collaboration with the National Insurance Commission (NIC), government has developed a comprehensive Insurance Sector Strengthening Strategy which seeks to enhance efficiency, viability, competitiveness and profitability of the industry through innovation-driven transformation with emphasis on capacity building, enhanced efficiency, improved underwriting standards and long term sustainability.

Mr Amo stressed the need for strong regulatory frameworks, innovation and collaboration among Africa’s industry players and underscored the importance of building public confidence in insurance through greater public awareness and financial literacy to expand insurance coverage across the continent.

The five day event is being hosted by the Ghana Insurers Association which is one of the 17 Anglophone African countries that make up ANIA.

The President of the GIA, Mrs Boatemaa Barfour-Awuah stressed the importance of seamless cross-border market participation as the challenges in each member country are not very different from the rest.

She also noted that the challenges facing the industry are exacerbated by financial conditions surrounding new regulatory requirements and global events such as the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards and risk-based capital requirements, as well as the ongoing geo-political tensions in the Middle East.

Countries represented at the opening of the Meeting were the host, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Mauritius and Zimbabwe.

Other speakers at the opening ceremony were representatives of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana (IBAG), the Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana (CIIG),  the Insurance Awareness Coordinators Group (IACG), Ghana National Bureau of the ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme and the West Africa Insurance Companies Association (WAICA).

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