…Marks 10yrs in Kenya

By Favour Nnabugwu

CONTINENTAL Reinsurance has called on industry stakeholders to work together to increase insurance penetration on the continent of Africa. The Group Managing Director, Dr Femi Oyetunji, who said this during the 10-year anniversary celebration of the company’s presence in Kenya, noted that  the company’s  journey in Kenya has been inspired by various factors namely: a stable economy, ease of doing business and a comparatively advanced insurance industry.

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“We should not focus on competing as industry stakeholders but complementing each other and building a better insurance market. By building partnerships, relationships and working together, we can reap lots of benefits.”

Giving an insight into the host country, Oyetunji said Kenya has the highest insurance penetration in the East Africa region, standing at three percent compared with less than one percent for the whole continent.

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“The continent’s low insurance penetration together with the growing population presents great opportunities that we, as stakeholders, can tap into, especially in sustainable development. Seeing agriculture is a key pillar in the government of Kenya’s Big Four Agenda, the insurance industry has a key role to play to cushion farmers from losses and boost food security,” he added.

To contribute to Kenya’s economic agenda, the insurance sector should also support other sectors such as infrastructure, health, housing and manufacturing that that are critical in uplifting Kenyans’ standard of living on the path to Kenya becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2030.

The ten-year anniversary comes a year after Continental Reinsurance celebrated 30 years of its existence on the continent, having grown to become the largest privately-owned pan-African reinsurance company.  The Kenyan office was set up in 2008, in line with the company’s organising principle of localisation.

Managing Director of Continental Re,  Nairobi office, Mr. Souvik Banerjea said: “This means we have to work harder to match the expectations of those who support us and impress the consciousness of those who yet do not. We are also focusing a lot of energy into identifying how to increase the size of the markets that we serve, rather than simply nibbling away at the existing pie.”