Overview of Insurance and Insurtech in Africa

Editorial Calendar Exclusive Content Overview of Insurance and Insurtech in Africa An overview of the insurance industry was highlighted in the recent report fromThe Fintech Times,Fintech: Middle East and Africa 2021 Report, where it discussed various facts in the current state of the continent that is home to over 1.3 billion people. Africa Is uninsured but has potential to grow First, Africa is generally less developed than more advanced economies (it is home to some of the world’s poorest countries) and this is reflected in the insurance industry where penetration is some of the world’s lowest. It is also home to ayoungpopulation as well.

For instance, even though Nigeria has an active andemerging fintech scene, the country’s insurance penetration is a lowly 0.4 per cent. Indeed, for much of Africa generally, a combination of factors – from the low income of customers to the large unbanked sector – has resulted in relatively low insurance levels. The report highlighted this, which originally was researched by a report fromDeloitte.

The continent has a potential insurance market value of $68billion in terms of gross written premiums, which would put it at the eighth largest in the world. This was originally researched from a report fromMcKinsey. However, this is not consistent throughout the continent and is heavily concentrated in one country – South Africa.

The country in the report says that around 80 per cent of the premiums of Africa are held just there. The remaining is dominated by six “primary insurance regions in Africa”: French-speaking Francophone Africa, English-speaking Anglophone West Africa, Southern Africa, North Africa, East Africa, and Angola. The $68 billion market for Africa if comparing it to other emerging regions shows the potential growth the continent can have, in addition to it being fragmented at present in particular with South Africa.