Wednesday 16 May 2018
C002D5556
BUSINESS DAY
27
E-mail: insurancetoday@businessdayonline.com
L-R: Thusang Mahlangu, MD, Allianz South Africa; Owolabi Salami, Ensure Nigeria; Delphine Maidou-Traore, COO, Allianz Africa and Sunkanmi Adekeye, Ensure Nigeria at the recent African Insurance Organisation Conference in Accra Ghana.
L-R: Emmnuel Achusim, chairman, Metro Risk Insurance Brokers; Uju Ngozi Chukwu, deputy DG Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria; Moruf Apampa, MD, Equity Assurance Plc; Leornard Akah, director, NAICOM; Supo Segelola, ED, Law Union and Rock Insurance; and Eddi Efekoha, MD, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plce at the recent African Insurance Organisation Conference in Accra Ghana.
The attraction for African insurance market Stories by Modestus Anaesoronye
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here is a new drive to take advantage of growth opportunities in Africa, and this accounts for why many insurance companies across the world are making efforts to take a place in the continent. African continent has over a 1 billion people in 54 countries and yet there are low levels of uptake in insurance among the low-income population. This state can be attributed either to the lack of knowledge about insurance products and to an extent misunderstanding of the concept of insurance accounts. Most Africans cannot afford insurance premiums just yet. Mostly is a choice between fulfilling a basic immediate need versus signing a long term
beneficial need, in this case insurance. However, there are tremendous growth and opportunities which the continent has for the insurance companies, globally. Tapping into this industry, surely rewards the brave. Africa has massive opportunities for life and on-life insurers and according to the insights gathered by Legato Consultancy, the following regions highlight the growth insurance market potential currently available in the Africa continent: Angola: remains significantly underdeveloped and has immense potential for growth. Insurance is still dominated by the oil industry. It is expected that many people will be uplifted to the middle class as a result of the GDP and government’s enforcement of the compulsory 3rd party motor vehicle insurance. Nigeria: 60 percent of
insurance premiums are derived from the energy sector. Of the 169 million Nigerians in 2014, only 2.25 million had active insurance. The market is also dominated by 59 insurers all targeting the market share with penetration levels as far below as 1 percent. Ghana: the insurance market is seen positive growth and upward trajectory, with business insurance and life insurance taking the lead. The country has 45 registered insurers with 19 operating in the life segment. The development of the oil and gas sector and a positive economic outlook set to boost the insurance industry. Funeral insurance remains largely untapped in Ghana and funeral costs in the country can cost up to $20 000 and averages about $6 000. Morocco: has the second largest insurance market in Africa. 4 companies domi-
nate the market underwriting 70 percent of the risks. 13 smaller companies share the remaining 30% of the market. The continued success of Morocco insurance industry is largely attributed to a well-developed banking system; government positioning towards foreign direct investment and also the government’s active role in encouraging foreign companies to set up offices in their country. Egypt: despite a welldeveloped financial sector – insurance penetration rates still remain below 1% due to Islam being the dominant faith and growth in the private sector being stifled by the state owned enterprises. Namibia: is among the better developed in Africa, boosted by foreign direct investment and a greater portion of wealthy citizens contributing to good sustainable growth.
Premium Pension appoints Oluwashina executive director
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oard of Premium Pension Limited has appointed Kemi Oluwashina as executive director, Business Development South & Strategy. This is in line with its strategy to achieve higher Business Development potentials aimed at repositioning the Company for greater heights. Her appointment is expected to enhance the reach of the Company in the Southern part of the country as well as to the de-
cision making at the higher level closer to clients. Oluwashina holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy d e g re e f ro m O b a f e m i Awolowo University, IleIfe, Nigeria and a Masters in Business Administration from Manchester Business School, United Kingdom. She also attended Leadership Development programs at Harvard Business School. She has over 18 years’ experience in Asset Management, Strategy and Investment consulting and
has extensive institutional and retail interaction. Umar Sanda Mairami , CEO of the Company expressed confidence that, the appointment of the new ED would further strengthen the Company for improved performance. Mairami described the unprecedented growth level achieved by the Company in the last decade as outcome of being customer centric, gender sensitive and richly endowed with executives with multi-dis-
ciplinary talents. Prior to joining Premium Pension Limited, she was an Executive Director at ARM Securities Ltd, a role she functioned in after a 10-year stint in the Pension Industry with ARM Pension Managers. Premium Pension Limited is a licensed Pension Fund Administrator Company which started operations in the year 2005, with current Assets Under Management (AUM) amounting to N548.55 Billion.
Babington-Ashaye led delegation to Hong Kong learns on market opportunities
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perators in the Nigerian insurance industry at a recent International Exchange Programme in Hong Kong organised by the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) came to terms that developing the services sector where insurance belongs could sustain and make the economy great, without natural resources. They also discovered that Hong Kong has paid attention to its services sector and so earns its major contribution to GDP from it. Funmi BabinhgtonAshaye, president and chairman of Council of the CIIN who led the Nigerian delegation to the conference said the choice Honk Kong for our exchange programme was informed by a number of factors. “Hong Kong is one of the greatest and biggest financial and trade hubs in Asia. It’s accomplishments in all spheres of human endeavour as islands clearly belie its small size. As one of the world’s leading knowledge centres, the achievements of Hong Kong in global commerce and international trade is at variance not only with its size but also provide a framework for learning and development.” She said with the most efficient and busiest maritime container port in the world, it is on record that Hong Kong dispatches one
container every 4 minutes to other parts of the globe. “In 2017, its per capita income reached $46,228.13 while its 2018 ranking on the global Ease of Doing Business is 5th”. “Besides these performance statistics, it was estimated that services, which include insurance and reinsurance services, contributed 91 percent of its Gross Domestic Product in 2016.The implication of the dominance of the service sector cannot be lost on us: nations can develop without natural resources.” The prosperity of this island is based on knowledge, its human capital. Therefore, there is a lot to learn from players in this environment so that we can positively impact our various organisations and by extension, our nation’s economy, Babington Ashaye said. “As we strategically plan to grow our businesses, we must take our bearing from the market place. Users of our services must define what we do. We must connect with and respond promptly to their needs efficiently and effectively. Our business model must be in tune with clients’ demands and the realities of our environment. If we choose to diversify, it should be into areas of shared services which can reduce operational cost and enhance efficiency and profitability.”