African insurers tasked to rise up to challenges confronting regional market

Mrs. Lamia Ben Mahmoud, President of Africa Insurance Organisation (AIO), on Monday said there is need for Africa insurance operators to devise strategies aimed at facing the continent’s numerous challenges.

Mahmoud, disclosed this at the on-going Africa insurance Organisation Conference in Marrakech, Morocco that the industry must insure its future.

She also said that the drop in global oil price has continued to hamper insurance penetration in the continent, still making it a hard nut to crack.

According to her  the share of insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP, has remained exceptionally low while in some countries it only amounts to less than one per cent well below the global emerging market average of 2.7percent  in 2014, while Africa’s share of the global insurance market is 1.1percent for Non-Life and 1.8percent 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.