“A significant portion of insurance premiums are still leaving the continent. We will not relent in our effort and determination to reverse this ugly trend.”
This view was shared by group managing director at Africa Re, Mr. Corneille Karekezi (pictured), as he surveys the potentials African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) broods for the continent’s insurers/reinsurers; but the fears that all the potentials may not hatch to command the prosperous new Africa insurance and this he maintains, remains a challenge. To avoid such scenario, he maintains that the continent operators should at the starting block of the emergence of what is coming for insurers.
Karekezi’ view was reflected in the current annual Africa Insurance Pulse that is dedicated to AfCFTA and how the economic integration initiative enables the operators in the Africa insurance industry leverage the largest trade area in the world in terms of the number of member countries since the formation of the World Trade Organisation.
Despite the concern that the challenges are not coming down in a short term after commencement of the free trade agreement, Africa Re helmsman hope is still ignited, his comments, “We hope that the expected boost of intra-Africa trade from AfCFTA will also result into much needed improvement in insurance penetration on the continent.”
That expected boost that Karekezi hope rests on is the $450bn potential income gains at stake and African insurers/reinsurers should not be laid back but get on the starting blocks fully prepared for the enormous potentials.
But with an eye for all times AfCFTA inclusive, he says, “On our part, we will continue to retain more and more business on the continent and offer different capacity building initiatives across the continent. That is our mission.”
