Reinsurers Charged to Focus More on Emerging Risks

The Group Managing Director of the WAICA Reinsurance Corporation Plc., Mr. Ezekiel Abiola Ekundayo has urged reinsurers to focus more on emerging risks that threaten economic growth although the industry remains quite resilient amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Ezekiel Abiola Ekundayo made these comments following the maiden edition of his outfits Annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Competition Project and Ambassadors held under the theme “Practical Solutions to Natural Disasters in West Africa”

“Reinsurance in Africa is on a steady growth path despite the turbulence created by COVID-19. The top-10 reinsurance players still control a significant share of the market. 

“There have been improvements in local content, however, significant large risk exposures in engineering, oil and gas are still ferried to non-domestic reinsurers. 

“Reinsurance companies should focus more on emerging risks: such as political risks, terrorism, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, among others.

“African reinsurers need to invest and leverage technology in driving their businesses; support for insurtech is the way to go”.

Mr. Ezekiel Abiola Ekundayo

Mr. Ekundayo hinted that for instance, WAICA Reinsurance Corporation Plc. has made giant strides because of the inestimable support it is getting from the reinsurance market across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The corporation started as a spark during July 2011 in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

“Today, it has grown into a group. We have continued to expand throughout Africa and beyond – with 4 regional offices located in Nigeria, Ghana, Tunisia, and Ivory Coast. Also, we have four subsidiaries: WAICA Re (UK) Ltd., WAICA Re Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd., WAICA Re Capital Ltd. (Ghana) and WAICA Re (Kenya) Ltd. In the 10 short years of the WAICA Re’s existence, our gross premium grew from US$35,000 in 2011 to US$103million in 2020.”

 “In 2020, despite the COVID–19 challenges, we grew by about 50%. The performance makes WAICA Re one of the fastest-growing reinsurance companies within the African region”.

Mr. Ezekiel Abiola Ekundayo

Highlighting some CSR activities carried out to support the countries where the Reinsurance Corporation operates, Mr. Ekundayo revealed that in Ghana his outfit refurbished the insurance institute’s library, stocking it with textbooks.

Touching on the competition, the WAICA Re Group MD further asserted that although there has been a continued shift in building capacity as major players have organised conferences, academies, training and competitions tailored to skill enhancement and capacity building, the level of capital needs to be shored-up to adequately bear risks and meet stakeholders’ expectations.

Based on this premise coupled with WAICA Re’s philosophy of strengthening the financial sector of the sub-region by providing greater and viable insurance and reinsurance capacity, Mr. Ezekiel Abiola Ekundayo said the winner of the competition will receive up to US$100,000 to support the project to be embarked on.

Additionally, the competition’s winner will become the goodwill ambassador for WAICA Re for a year and will receive a cash award of US$5,000. There will also be 1st and 2nd runners-up with cash awards of US$2,000 and US$1,000 respectively, Mr. Ekundayo mentioned.

“WAICA Reinsurance Corporation has promised to support the winner of its maiden edition of ‘Annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Competition Project and Ambassadors for 2021/2022’ with US$100,000, across all its operating countries”.

“We hope that your organisation’s personnel will take advantage of this opportunity to be part of the change agent in their communities by participating in the competition”.

Mr. Ezekiel Abiola Ekundayo