The President of African Insurance Organisation (AIO), Mr Tope Smart, has called on African insurance market operators to improve on the level of insurance penetration in the continent.

The AIO boss who is also Group Managing Director/ CEO, NEM Insurance Plc, made the call while addressing members of the organisation in preparation for the forth coming 48 conference and National Assembly of the organisation to hold in Nairobi, Kenya.

This, he said, could be achieved via solutions that improve access to insurance, the reputation of the African insurance industry and insurance awareness in Africa.

According to him, the African insurance industry still suffers from very low insurance penetration rate when compared to global rates with an average of less than two per cent excluding South Africa.

According to him, this shows the weakness of our industry, and the vast potentials to be exploited.

“Dear AIO members, as we slowly recover from the numerous restrictions imposed on us by the Covid-19 pandemic, I wish to convey my best wishes and those of the entire management of the AIO, as we prepare to celebrate 50 years of the AIO.”84. As you are no doubt aware, the African insurance industry still suffers from very low insurance penetration rates, when compared to global rates, with an average of less than 2 percent if we remove South Africa.

“This on one hand shows the weaknesses of our industry and on the other the vast potential yet to be exploited. According to a 2018 Lloyd’s publication, even a 1 percent increase in insurance penetration will reduce the disaster recovery burden on developing countries by 22 percent. 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, ”he said.

He further said as part of measures to address this challenge, he would appeal to different markets to scale up advocacy initiative by collaborating with various organs of government to advance the course ofinsurance as this will lead to increased penetration.

He noted that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was set to become the world’s largest free trade area in respect of the numbers of participating countries, adding that it was one of the flagship projects of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

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