Africa’s insurers and reinsurers can do way more than protect policyholders’ assets and turnovers from perils. They also have the opportunity to invest the significant sums held to meet future claims in ways that build resilience within the countries they operate in.
The short-tailed nature of general insurance claims means that much of this capital is invested in liquid cash, bond and money market instruments; but new financing vehicles, such as green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds, are creating opportunities to invest in projects with favourable environmental and social outcomes.
It is in this context that the Alexforbes 2026 Stewardship Report becomes relevant to insurers and reinsurers. The report focuses on the relationship between a multi-manager, its appointed asset managers and the companies in which they invest; but its motivation should resonate with any institutional decision-maker responsible for allocating large pools of capital.
Asset managers, banks, insurers and retirement fund trustees will all find value in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations that shape asset manager interactions with the boards and executive teams at both listed and unlisted investee firms. The common objective across these allocators is that their capital generates a return for shareholders or investors; if it generates these returns while contributing to economic growth, improving energy and water security or providing social stability, so much the better.
“We believe that sustainable investing results in stronger, more resilient portfolios; it allows us to better manage risk, identify emerging opportunities and contribute meaningfully to a stable financial future for our clients,” said Alexforbes CEO, Dawie de Villiers, in a question-and-answer format to introduce the research.
He described stewardship as a core investment capability that is perhaps as central to asset allocation as risk identification and mitigation are to sustainable underwriting.
South Africa’s largest multi-manager has an impressive stewardship footprint domestically, underpinned by its 395 formal engagements with 32 asset managers that have a combined R8 trillion (about US$482.8 billion in December 2025) in assets under management invested across 30 strategies and eight asset classes. The latest report also draws insights from 2,676 ESG-focused engagements between these 32 asset managers and investee firms.
The report’s unpacking of the real-world impact of private market investments will resonate with resilience- and sustainability-focused capital allocators. It reveals the significant edge of private over listed markets in directing capital towards environmental and social outcomes in specific communities. As one example, the multi-manager’s Infrastructure Impact Fund of Funds (IIF) has secured R1.6 billion (about US$96.6 million) in commitments and deployed R750 million (US$45.3 million) across priority sectors since its launch in July 2024.
According to Alexforbes, the IIF “continues to prioritise diversification across infrastructure themes while advancing transformation through allocations to black-owned and black-managed portfolios, supported by strengthened impact measurement and governance frameworks”. Its early focuses include affordable housing under the social category and renewable energy under environmental.
The report case study on ‘impact in action’ featured Cape Town Biogas, an organic waste-to-energy facility that converts mixed organic waste into renewable biomethane and nutrient-rich compost. The facility supplies renewable biomethane to industrial users, displacing the equivalent of 16,000 litres of diesel per day in a region without access to natural gas. This experience repeats across industries and business sizes.
By the end of 2024, Alexforbes estimated that its broader private markets portfolio had funded or impacted more than 30,000 small, medium and micro enterprises, employed more than 25,000 women and seen more than 1,600 employees of colour in senior management positions. These types of private market investments target nine of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and contribute towards six of South Africa’s National Development Plan chapters.
Active stewardship helps to extend this impact into listed markets. Premal Ranchod, head of research at Alexforbes Investments, said the quality of engagement with asset managers had improved meaningfully over the year, with ESG discussions becoming more substantive.
The 2,676 ESG-focused engagements between asset managers and investee firms have highlighted the dominant engagement priorities for 2026, including governance (21%), remuneration (16%), climate (14%) and water security (13%).
Alexforbes singled out governance as important for “long-term value creation and risk mitigation, particularly in emerging markets”. And hardly a day goes by without some news story shining the spotlight on the governance function.
As this article headed to the publisher, the South African media was reporting on investor objections to aspects of JSE-listed Naspers’ (and dual-listed Prosus’) executive remuneration and voting structures. The resolutions put to the 2026 AGMs passed despite this noise; but the types of tensions that can arise between capital allocators and investee firms were on open display.
Energy and water security stand out as important environmental stewardship themes. Asset managers view these constraints, which often stem from inadequate or poorly maintained infrastructure, as material financial and operational risks that have a direct and negative impact on investee firms’ sustainability. Most firms, their commercial risk managers and underwriters hold similar views.
Santam’s 2024/2025 Insurance Barometer found that 63% of commercial respondents viewed failing infrastructure as a high risk to their businesses, while 83% identified poor infrastructure as their biggest emerging risk over the next two years. Respondents to that survey flagged interrupted water supply and weaknesses in the national electricity grid. The Alexforbes report echoed the sentiment, noting that energy and water concerns featured in almost every stewardship conversation during 2025.
Environmental and social risks are concentrated in different parts of the JSE. The report identifies environmental risks most prominently in the energy and chemicals, general mining, telecommunications and real estate sectors, while social risks come to the fore under consumer goods, industrials, basic resources and retail.
The social risks that asset managers want their investee firms to respond to keep evolving. Gambling, and its impact on the South African consumer, was the most frequently mentioned challenge under this heading during 2025, accounting for 24%, with cybersecurity and healthcare weighing in with 12% each. Other concerns ranged from food security, public health and worker welfare to employment, labour shortages, workplace safety and affordable housing.
The developing gambling crisis is exposed in National Treasury’s April 2026 draft National Consumer Financial Education Policy, which cited research indicating that 52% of working South Africans participate in gambling, and that 40% gambled frequently in an attempt to generate income for basic expenses such as rent and food. Treasury said the trend was accelerating despite high unemployment, household indebtedness and constrained household income; your writer reckons replacing ‘despite’ with ‘as a consequence of’ is more on point.
“Stewardship is not static,” concluded De Villiers. “As markets, regulation and societal expectations continue to evolve, we will continue strengthening how we integrate ESG considerations, as well as sustainability issues more broadly, oversee asset managers and manage investment risk.”
The multi-manager continues to explore ways to allocate capital to support both long-term client outcomes and positive real-world impact.
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