The Commissioner for Insurance/CEO, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Sunday Thomas, has challenged African insurers to build synergies to deepen insurance growth.
Mr. Sunday spoke at the investiture ceremony of Mr. Tope Smart, a Nigerian elected as the 23rd President of the African Insurance Organisation (AIO) at the 47th African Insurance Organisation Conference and General Assembly held in Lagos at the weekend.
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He also said, “The African insurance market is in dire need of serious collaboration and synergy now than in other times in the past as we rightly agree here that we must look inward if truly we want to make an impact.
“Time has passed that we rely on foreign or international support from the west and other superpowers as the world at large is overwhelmed by so many issues.”
The AIO’s new president accepted the challenge from NAICOM and promised to infuse innovation at the organisation.
“Though Africa’s GDP increased from $2.368 trillion in 2018 to $2.448tr in 2019, total direct premium written decreased from $69.46 billion to $68.2bn.
“Also in 2019, while global premium growth was 3%, Africa recorded a negative growth of -3%.”
Aside from a few markets like South Africa, Morocco, Kenya, Egypt, Malawi, Zambia and Ghana, other African countries, including Nigeria, did not reach 1% penetration rate.
“I believe this trend must be reversed,” said Smart.
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