The new African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) will pave the way for new opportunities for the African insurance markets, a group of insurance supervisors agreed.
Speaking at a roundtable hosted by Continental Reinsurance, the regulators said it was a work in progress but is firmly on the agenda.
It came up during the supervisors’ meeting at the African Insurance Organisation General Assembly in Nairobi and the group say it will be on the radar in the months and years ahead.
However, they also agreed that there is work to be done and that they need to collaborate more in the coming months to ensure the agreement delivers benefits to the insurance market.
As Grace Muradzikwa, Commissioner at the Insurance and Pensions Commission in Zimbabwe, said: “We cannot ignore it. But our conversations are very nascent.” The supervisors agreed that the first thing they need to understand is who within their respective governments are handling the agreement.
For example, in Zimbabwe it is being led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has set up a committee on the agreement, while in Namibia it is being led by the Ministry of Trade.
The regulators also suggested that it is likely the first developments will come at a regional level and pointed to the work already underway in east Africa on the development of a yellow card to allow for cross-border traffic movements.
Ms Muradzikwa said: “Our job as regulators is really to make sure that our own markets are ready for this.”
Grace Mohamed, general manager at Namfisa in Namibia, added that the regulators will be watching as frameworks develop and there is harmonisation of the rules. “We have to make sure that the rules will work for our insurers and that levels of implementation are equal.”
COMMENTS