PROTOCOLS
- Commissioner of Insurance
- President, West Africa Insurance Companies Association (WAICA)
- Secretary General, WAICA
- Secretary General, ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme
- All Protocols observed
- The Media
- Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of the President of the Republic, H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the people of Ghana, I extend a very warm welcome to you all to the 2022 West Africa Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) insurance industry event hosted here in Accra-Ghana, which as I understand, is the country where your organization was birthed in 1973.
- Let me use this opportunity to commend your industry for having kept this body alive and progressing for this length of time.
- Going through the brief write up about WAICA shared with me, I observe that a key objective of the association is to develop the insurance markets of the member countries which I believe is an ongoing process towards the growth of our economies, especially after the downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic that has devastated all economies in the last two years.
- Ghana, just like many other countries is fortunately on a recovery path from the ravages of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Our recent growth statistic released by the Ghana Statistical Service shows a performance higher than projected. Such growth performance should ultimately reflect averagely on all key drivers of the economy. The insurance industry becomes certainly a critical area of focus in terms of the drivers that can contribute to a country’s growth spurt.
- It has been proven globally that a strong correlation exists between the level of economic development of a country and how developed the Insurance sector of the country is. Whilst correlation does not necessarily imply causation, the benefits of a well-developed Insurance market to a country are enormous.
Government initiatives to improve insurance penetration and industry
Ladies and gentlemen, looking at the tremendous benefits and contribution of insurance to our economy, Government has put in place measures to strengthen the insurance industry including the following:
Passage of the new Insurance Act 2021 (Act 1061). The new Act provides stringent regulatory framework to protect consumers and increase accessibility of insurance to the Ghanaian populace, particularly the informal sector operators and consumers in the low-income brackets. It also provides measures aimed at strengthening the corporate governance practices within the industry and in accordance with international best principles for risk-based supervisory framework.
The Act also has strengthened the regulatory powers of the National Insurance Commission and has provided for the regulation of marine insurance, agriculture insurance, micro-insurance and innovative insurance.
- We have also embarked on a recapitalisation of the insurance industry to help strengthen the balance sheets of regulated insurance entities. This is aimed at enhancing the underwriting capacity of insurers to enable them assume higher insurance risk and to make resources available for investment in essential productive areas such as technology, product development and distribution of appropriate insurance packages.
Government also anticipates the active participation of the insurance sector in the development of our capital market by improving the industry’s current investment mix, which currently indicates a bigger share allocated to Government Securities (29%), Property Investments (28%), Term Deposits (25%), Equities and Mutual Funds (14%) and others (4%).
- Ladies and gentlemen, the vision of Government for the insurance industry is to modernize the provision of insurance services through digitalization, improve on micro and agricultural insurance products to expand access and strengthen the balance sheet of the industry. We also want to ensure that the growth of the industry feeds into the capital market and translates into broader economic growth and development.
Digitization of insurance
- As part of the digitaliazation drive of government, the National Insurance Commission has implemented the Motor insurance database. The objective of the introduction of the Motor Insurance Database is to curb the menace of vehicles with fake motor insurance stickers plying our roads, thus endangering lives and property.
- With the digitalization of motor insurance in Ghana, all insurance policies, which now have key security features, have been synchronized to a national database, which can be accessed simply with any mobile phone by the insured, the Police, and the general public.
Members of the public can also self-check the authenticity of their insurance policy by dialing a USSD code *920*57# and follow the instructions thereafter to know the insurance status of the vehicle. Therefore, our Police and general public can easily check from their phones and devices on the road which vehicles have insurance or not.
This singular act of implementing the motor insurance database has led to the growth of the motor insurance industry from 19% in 2019 to 37% in 2020 and 26% in 2021. The value of the business undertaken increased from GHC 566 million in 2017 to GHC2.3 billion in 2021. Digitization has dealt a severe blow to corruption in the insurance industry with no room for fake insurance certificates.
Ghana’s membership in African Trade Insurance Agency
As part of Government’s quest in reducing the risk and cost of doing business for prospective investors and investments in the country, Ghana is now a member of the African Trade Insurance (ATI) Agency. ATI officially launched its services and products in the Ghanaian market in February 2020 and has provided political risk coverage for transactions and projects in the financial, health, and roads sectors with a total gross exposure of US$ 380 million.
It is worthy to note that this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the African Trade Insurance (ATI) Agency will be held on June 23rd, 2022, in Accra, in a hybrid format where Shareholders, Board Members and ATI’s Senior Management, and Partner Institutions will participate in-person or virtually.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let me reiterate the fact that the role of the insurance industry in Ghana’s economy cannot be over-emphasized. As at end 2021, the sector employs over 12,000 Ghanaians with over GHS7.65 billion in total assets (representing about 2.19% of GDP) and over GHS72 million in total corporate tax to the Government.
It is therefore important that as stakeholders, we work together to engender trust in the industry to support Government’s agenda of a financially inclusive society. On this note I wish to congratulate the West Africa Insurance Companies Association for such a brilliant initiative and to wish you success in the implementation of the Associations’ strategies towards improving insurance coverage and insurance penetration in West Africa.
Thank you and God bless us all.
