Mr Tope Smart, President of the African Insurance Organisation, has urged African underwriters to increase penetration through lobbying.
He spoke ahead of the AIO’s 48th conference and annual general assembly, as well as its 50th-anniversary celebration, which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, according to a statement.
He said, “We believe it is our mission to improve insurance penetration via solutions that improve access to insurance, the reputation of the African insurance industry, and insurance awareness in Africa.
“As part of measures to address this challenge, I appeal to different markets to scale up its advocacy initiative by collaborating with various organs of government to advance the course of Insurance as this will lead to increased penetration.”
He sent his best wishes, as well as those of the entire AIO management, to the insurance businesses as the continent slowly recovered from the various restrictions put on it by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He pointed out that, compared to worldwide levels, the African insurance business still has very low insurance penetration rates, with an average of less than 2% outside of South Africa.
This, he argued, revealed the industry’s flaws as well as the immense promise that has yet to be realized.
“According to a 2018 Lloyd’s publication, even a one per cent increase in insurance penetration will reduce the disaster recovery burden on developing countries by 22 per cent,” he said.
Smart said the African Continental Free Trade Area was set to become the world’s largest free trade area in respect of the number of participating countries.
He said, “We believe that the AfCFTA could play a significant role in improving insurance services through liberalisation (eliminating nontariff barriers and refraining from introducing new ones) and integration.
“The AIO shall advocate for integration of the African insurance industry in the AfCFTA implementation. Furthermore, governments are increasingly using insurance to achieve public policy objectives and the AIO, again through its advocacy role, shall seek to advance the policy interests of Africa’s insurance industry, to create a conducive and enabling environment for insurance in Africa to thrive.”
He said the 48th AIO conference would focus on one of the key global issues, climate change, under the theme ‘Insurance and climate change: Harnessing the opportunities for growth in Africa’.
Smart urged the insurers to look at ways of making the organisation more useful to its members, the African insurance industry, and the entire continent.
