Ebere Nwoji
Immediate past president of Africa Insurance Organisation (AIO), Mr Tope Smart, has charged African regional insurance managers to provide risk management solutions, in form of risk mitigation and transfer mechanism in order to build resilience and enabling environment that will make the continent transit to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Smart, who gave the charge at the African Insurance Organisation (AIO) conference which held yin Nairobi, Kenya, also charged the regional insurers to address problems of low insurance penetration level, premium flight and poor public image bedeviling the sector.
He said this would enable them secure better future for the industry and noted that the African insurers still have a lot to do, regretting that the African insurance industry remains one of the least penetrated in the world, with an average of about 2 percent which is low compared to the global average of around 7 percent. According to him, the regional insurance market growth keeps getting slowed down by operators’ inability to build substantial capital reserves due to poor saving culture and premium flight, noting that operators still heavily rely on foreign expertise.
Speaking on the 50th anniversary celebration by the members of the regional body, Smart said, “As the AIO clocks 50 this year, the Golden Jubilee of the organisation will be marked by a symposium, where the operators intend to discuss some of these challenges facing the insurance industry in the continent.
“In view of the fact that the African Development Bank posited that Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change impacts under all climate scenarios above 1.5 degrees Celsius, it is worrisome to note that despite having contributed the least to global warming and having the lowest emissions, Africa faces exponential collateral damage, posing systemic risks to its economies, infrastructure investments, water and food systems, public health, agriculture and livelihoods, threatening to undo its modest development gains and slip into higher levels of extreme poverty”, he added.
