African insurers post $66 premium in 2011

 

Chuks Udo Okonta

 

 Insurance companies across Africa generated premium income in excess of $66 billion in 2011, President African Insurance Organisation (AIO), Hassan El Sayed, has said.

He disclosed this today Monday, at the ongoing 40th edition of AIO, conference holding in Cairo, Egypt.

He noted that African insurance sector has witnessed recession; therefore, insurers shall focus on micro-insurance so as to increase investment opportunities.

He said the non-life business accounted for $21.7 billion representing 7.1 per cent, while the life aspect of the business contributed $44.6 billion, representing 1.2 per cent of world premium income during the year under consideration.

Egypt’s Prime Minister, Hesham Kandil who declared the conference opened, in his speech entitled:  “The Role of the African Insurance Industry to support the economic development of African Countries”, said, for Africa to achieve better economic growth, there is need for it to solve the problem of infrastructure in the continent.

He noted that infrastructure build before independence by the colonial masters were built majorly to as a means of covering raw goods from the point of production to foreign countries, adding that better infrastructure needed to be put in place by African countries.

Kandil said Egypt was planning to build economic corridors that will link Egypt and the rest of Africa, adding that the corridors will link Egypt to Khartoum, Addis Ababa and South Africa.

He said Egypt had positioned to join other African countries to fight poverty and corruption as it affected the growth of development in Africa.

Chairman Organising Committee and Chairman of the Insurance Federation of Egypt (IFE),  Abudel Raouf Kotb, said African economic boom was set to go from strength to strength with the continent outpacing the global average GDP growth.

He said the main challenge was to ensure that the growth reflects on the average citizen and that the riches of Africa countries have direct effect of alleviating more Africans out of poverty and tracking inequality.

He said: “We have reason to be optimistic but let’s not under estimate the challenges we face, our continent continues to depend on external demands making us susceptible to global economic slowdowns, particularly in China and Eurozone.”

Kotb said Africa faced many domestic risks such as youth unemployment, political upheavals low insurance penetration and severe weather etc.

He noted that the insurance and reinsurance had a pivotal role play to ensure that these risks were properly identified and managed in order to ensure that the sustainable development of our countries.