Tope Smart, AIO President
BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR–The President of the African Insurance Organisation, Mr Tope Smart, has called on African insurance operators to scale up it’s advocacy initiatives in other to improve penetration.
This the AIO president believes the Industry can achieve this by collaborating with various organs of government to advance the course of improving penetration in Africa. .
The AIO boss who also doubles as the Group Managing Director/ CEO, NEM Insurance Plc, said this could be achieved via solutions that improve access to insurance, the reputation of the African insurance industry and insurance awareness in Africa.
According to him, the African insurance industry still suffer from very low insurance penetration rates when compared to global rates with an average of less than two per cent if we remove South Africa, this shows the weakness of our industry, and the vast potentials to be exploited.
“In 2018 Lloyd’s publication, even a 1% increase in insurance penetration will reduce the disaster recovery burden -+on developing countries by 22%. We believe it is our mission to improve insurance penetration via solutions that improve access to insurance, the reputation of the African insurance industry and insurance awareness in Africa.”
On African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) he said is set to become the world’s largest free trade area in respect of the numbers of participating countries. It is one of the flagship projects of the African Union’s Agenda 2063: “the Africa We Want”. “We believe that the AfCFTA could play a significant role in improving insurance services through liberalization (eliminating non tariff barriers and refraining from introducing new ones) and integration. The AIO shall advocate for integration of the African insurance industry in the AfCFTA implementation.
Furthermore, governments are increasingly using insurance to achieve public policy objectives and the AIO, again through its advocacy role, shall seek to advance the policy interests of Africa’s insurance industry, to create a conducive and enabling environment for insurance in Africa to thrive.
Activities to mark this milestone anniversary will hold in Nairobi, Kenya alongside our 48th Conference and Annual General Assembly. The host Kenya market and the AIO Secretariat have been working tooth and nail to make the celebration a memorable one. However, this can only be achieved through your support. I wish to appeal to AIO members to come out in their numbers and give their flagship event its merited grandeur.
The 48th AIO Conference will focus on one of the key global issues, Climate Change under the theme ‘Insurance and Climate Change: Harnessing the Opportunities for Growth in Africa’.
