Experts Charge West African Insurers On Transnational Competitiveness

Experts have charged insurance and reinsurance companies across West African sub-region to strive for expansion beyond their immediate market to other parts subregion and other parts of Africa for transnational competitiveness. 

The experts, who spoke at the Day-Two of the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) 50th Anniversary and Conference 2023, in Victoria Island, Lagos, yesterday, stated that, this would ensure that underwriters within the sub-region are globally competitive and enhance their ratings. 

On her part, the managing director/CEO, Enterprise Life Ghana, Mrs. Jacqueline Benyi charged insurance sector regulators across the sub-region to be supportive of this movement while calling for regulators’ synergies within countries in West Africa to ensure this transnational operation process is seamless. 

Calling on regulators to always lobby government for passage and implementation of regulations that will grow and deepen Insurance market, she advised investors who wants to set up in other countries aside their primary market to tweak their model to accommodate the socio-cultural and economic conditions of their new market to make quicker in-road. 

Disclosing that, transnational insurance business across Africa is critical, she added that, such move will create employment, wealth, improves market competitiveness on global level, enhances corporate governance and standard and innovations which drive business growth.

While charging operators to make the sub-region an insurance power house in Africa, she urged underwriters to emulate Ecobank, Access Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank(GTB), among others, who have effectively made their imprint across Africa and beyond to enhance transnational competitiveness in the banking sector.

So far, she disclosed that, out of 131 underwriters in the sub-region, only 11 companies have grown out of it.

Speaking on ‘Positioning Insurance Companies In West Africa for Transnational Competitiveness,’ the group managing director/CEO, Continental Reinsurance Corporation, Mr. Lawrence Nazare, listed significant barrier in premium taxes, hence, making reinsurance business unattractive despite African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), market fragmentation, poor connectivity, language barrier, among others. 

To him, African is a place of opportunities, when things are done well and right, urging operators to be aggressive for expansion even though, it must be done within the existing regulatory framework.

Meanwhile, the regional executive, Anglophone,West African region, Ecobank Group, Accra, Ghana, Mr. Daniel Sackey urged insurers to utilise the abundant talents in the sub-region, take advantage of the population dynamics while adapting to local dynamics in whatever countries they want to operate in West African to survive and succeed in their business, saying, ‘you need to think local and act global for global competitiveness.’

He urged underwriters in the sub-region to emulate their counterparts in the banking sector who have gone ahead to be globally competitive despite being an African entity, noting that, this will ensure that such underwriters have good ratings and able to compete for risk businesses in the international market without any fear.