Insurance industry leaders from across Africa are meeting in Accra this week for the 4th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Africa Network of Insurers Associations (ANIA), where delegates are confronting a sector held back by low market penetration, a shortage of local underwriting capacity, and slow adoption of innovation.
The five-day conference, which opened on Monday, March 9, 2026, at Insurance House, the head office of the Ghana Insurers Association (GIA) in Accra, brings together insurance companies, regulators, brokers, industry associations, policymakers and development partners. Countries represented at the opening ceremony included Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Mauritius and Zimbabwe.
Ghana’s Commissioner of Insurance, Dr Abiba Zakariah, who chaired the opening ceremony, drew attention to Africa’s persistently low insurance penetration rate of approximately 3 percent, less than half the global average of 7.4 percent. She attributed the gap to limited financial literacy, low consumer demand and widespread public mistrust of insurance services. She also noted that Africa’s insurance market remains heavily concentrated in a handful of countries including South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius and Morocco, with most others, including Ghana, falling below even the continental average.
Dr Zakariah also flagged the insufficient capital base of many local insurers, which forces them to cede large risks to foreign reinsurers, resulting in significant outflows of reinsurance premiums from the continent. She called on ANIA to lead coordinated action to address these structural weaknesses.
ANIA President Josan Kissakye of Uganda echoed those concerns, citing insurance fraud as a particularly urgent challenge requiring a holistic, continent-wide response. He stressed the importance of deeper cross-border collaboration in all insurance dealings across Africa.
The keynote address was delivered by Louis Kwame Amo, Director of the Financial Sector Division at Ghana’s Ministry of Finance, who reaffirmed the government’s commitment to building a resilient insurance industry. He said the government, working with the National Insurance Commission (NIC), had developed a comprehensive Insurance Sector Strengthening Strategy focused on innovation, enhanced underwriting standards, capacity building and long-term sustainability.
GIA President Boatemaa Bafuor-Awuah stressed the importance of seamless cross-border market participation, noting that the challenges facing insurers in each ANIA member country were broadly similar. She said those challenges were being compounded by new regulatory requirements, including the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and risk-based capital rules, as well as the current geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which are disrupting global financial conditions.
ANIA was established in 2022 and ratified by the African Insurance Organization (AIO) in 2023. It currently brings together insurers associations from 17 Anglophone African countries. Ghana is hosting the network’s annual meeting for the first time.
