Total African premiums totalled $69b in 2014 down from $72b in 2013
By Samuel Sanya
Uganda will host the 44th annual African Insurance Organization (AIO) and General Assembly in May 2017, Kaddunabi Lubega the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has revealed.
AIO has 326 members: 315 of them from 45 countries in Africa and 11 are associate members from 7 overseas countries.
Africa accounts for a paltry 1.4% of the total world insurance premiums due to chronically low levels of penetration.
While speaking at the 43rd Conference and Annual General Assembly of the AIO in Marrakech, Morocco recently, President of AIO, Lamia Ben Mahmoud said: “Insurance penetration is still a hard nut to crack, the share of insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP, has remained exceptionally low.”
“In some countries it only amounts to less than 1%, well below the global emerging market average of 2.7% in 2014, while Africa’s share of the global insurance market is 1.1% for non-life and 1.8% for life but this is a demonstration of the enormous growth potential within the industry African insurance industry, an indicator that the insurance market is still widely untapped.
In order to insure Africa’s future, we must devise strategies aimed at facing the continent’s numerous challenges today….there is still wide spread ignorance on the benefits of insurance. Added to this list is an acute insufficiency of product differentiation. Every company should continue to act to promote expertise,” she added.
According to AIO reports, total African premiums totalled $69b in 2014 down from $72b in 2013. Life insurance accounted for about two thirds of the 2014 total, with general insurance accounting for the rest.
In 2014, the 10 largest markets (South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, Angola, Namibia, Tunisia and Mauritius) generated premium of $63.4m, or 92% of total African premiums
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