College of Insurance Supervisors for the West African Monetary Zone (CISWAMZ), is now established by the West Africa Supervisors Association (WAISA), for multilateral cooperation, enforce global standards and minimise fraud in the insurance sector.
The ground breaking ceremony for the establishment was sealed at the concurrence of the Committee of Governors of the West African Monetary Zone at their 43th meeting on August 26, 2021. The members are six insurance regulators who are also members of African Insurance Organisation (AIO) are: Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia Nigeria and Sierra-Leone.
In the statement by National Insurance Commission head, Corporate Communication and Market Development, Rasaaq Salami, it was outlined that CISWAMZ with Nigeria’s Pius Agboola, NAICOM Director, Inspectorate Directorate as the Chairman, has a mandate to greatly enhance multilateral cooperation and promotion of international standards in fostering favourable investment environments and orderly markets in the West African sub region and beyond.
The statement also brings to the fore the mandate of CISWAMZ to tackle insurance fraud in every ramification. Agboola’s chaired body therefore, has a clear objective to minimise fraudulent activities in the insurance sector in accordance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) principles on anti-money laundering.
The body according to NAICOM statement, would assist the insurance industry respond to a wide range of social and economic forces; particularly, insurance-linked financial activities that are increasingly crossing national and sectorial boundaries.
Looking at the broader picture, NAICOM said, “The efficient and timely exchange of information among supervisory bodies, both within the insurance sector and across the financial services sector within the west African sub region is critical to the effective supervision of internationally active insurers, insurance groups and financial conglomerates which is also essential in the context for the effective supervision of the financial system as a whole.”
On the continental space, Salami noted that CISWAMZ queues behind the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to achieve a single market for goods and services, deepen the economic integration and prosperity on the continent as well as boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by strengthening Africa’s common voice and and policy space in global trade negotiations.
