By FAVOUR NNABUGWU and ROSEMARY ONUOHA

Today, the African Insurance Organisation, AIO, throws open its curtains in celebration of its 40th anniversary in Mauritius.

The event is the annual reinsurance forum; however, the AIO is taking advantage of the huge gathering to commemorate its 40th anniversary.

Forty years in the life of any establishment is no mean feat and having stood the test of time these past 40 years and being able to survive in the murky and highly dynamic African insurance industry, the AIO has deemed it worthy to clink glasses antsunamid pour some champagne.

Indeed, there is cause for celebration because from a paltry membership of just five at inception, the AIO has grown to house 319 members: 310 from 45 countries in Africa and nine associate members from six overseas countries.

Worthy of note is the fact that the AIO is an association of insurers; reinsurers; brokers; as well as actuaries and insurance consultants. Others are insurance supervisory authorities, training institutions and associations.

No doubt, the African insurance market has had its fair share of challenges over the years; however, the AIO has served as a platform and rallying point for major deliberations and reaching consensus on ways of surmounting these challenges.

Invariably,  in the face of series of challenges bedeviling the global insurance market   ranging from increasing uncertainty as to whether the original growth projections for the global economy will be met as the growth forecasts in major economies appear to indicate stagnation or contraction, the African insurance market has continued to maintain a positive outlook .

Also, despite the fact that  insured losses from the major disasters that have occurred in recent times including the Japanese earthquakes and tsunami, the flooding in Australia and tornadoes in various parts of the world  adversely affected the performance of foreign  insurance companies, the African insurance market has continued to be  active.

Also challenging is the fact that the disasters and the political instability in the Arab world inevitably affected the profitability of major companies; the African market has remained buoyant in the face of all these.

No doubt, African insurers are feeling the impact of these world events, however, the AIO has always served as a platform for African insurers to respond to these challenges and come up with workable solutions that will lead to the continued growth of the insurance business on the continent.

However, peculiar to the African continent is the social and political instability that continues to rock the continent; the rising number of catastrophes; the rather stagnant insurance coverage figure; as well as problems of good governance etc.

But in the face of these too, the AIO has been there to strategise on such issues and recommend the way forward.

To this end, the AIO is keen on partnering and establishing strong links with African insurers as well as international insurance players across the globe since globalisation is now a reality.

The AIO empowers members to continue to tap knowledge and best practices from other markets since global competitiveness can only be achieved through interaction with all significant players on the global platform.

Through organising various forums like the Reinsurance forum which opens today, the AIO encourages the exchange of business ideas through bilateral contacts and discussions which fall in line with the organisation’s objective of promoting inter-African cooperation and the development of a healthy insurance and reinsurance industry in Africa.

The AIO
The African Insurance Organisation (AIO), established in 1972, is a non-governmental organisation recognised by many African governments, including Cameroon which has signed a headquarters agreement with it and where it has set up its permanent secretariat.

The objectives of AIO include developing a healthy insurance and reinsurance industry in Africa as well as promoting inter-African co-operation in insurance.

In its 40 years of existence, the membership of the AIO has been on the increase. The organisation today has 332 members, 321 of them from 45 countries in Africa and 11 associate international members from seven countries namely the United Kingdom, Bahrain, India, Germany, The United Arab Emirates and Australia.

The AIO has mapped out some priority areas for the future and they include consolidating and strengthening the existing pools and associations set up by AIO; partnering with other organisations,     notably the World Bank, UNCTAD and ILO in various capacity- building programs; encouraging the development of micro insurance; promoting African Regulatory Capacity Building; as well as promoting the capacity building of African Training Institutes.

Others are promoting the management of life and Pension funds for development; developing the AIO website into a veritable reference point for African insurance; promoting the African Centre for Catastrophe risks; creating a pool for catastrophe risks as well as encouraging scholarly research.

Having clocked 40, the AIO is not short of some positive achievements in the course of time. As such, some of the areas in which the organisation has made remarkable achievements include organising the annual African Insurance Conference and General Assembly; organising the annual African Reinsurance Forum; organising the annual Life Insurance Seminar, as well as various workshops and seminars.

also increase the depth and liquidity in stock markets and bond markets; Government recognizes the important of insurance in the economy and is taking steps to address its current poor performance.

He assured that if the industry is able to maximise and take advantage of all the prevailing opportunities opened to it, the sector will in no distant time assume leadership position in Africa.

The President of LCCI, Mr. Goodie Ibru, also added that NAICOM is expected to get more involved in ensuring prompt claims payment as this would improve the perception of people about insurance policies in Nigeria.

He commended NAICOM on its shift towards risk-based regulatory frame work to check companies’ exposure to financial and operational risks, through the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, by the sector.

He noted that more insurance companies have reported and declared good financial results for the 2011 financial year after some years of losses and paper profits in the sector and the introduction of new rules and regulations for stricter supervision and regulation.

He explained that the emerging opportunities in the power sector should also be of keen interest to insurance sector operators, adding that operators must transform from the traditional areas of coverage to new grounds that have hitherto been the preserve of foreign underwriting firms.