By Patience Saghan

A  new President has been elected to head the Insurance Association of Malawi as Chapeyama takes charge as vice-president.
Mr Eric Chapola, Chief Executive Officer of NICO General Insurance Company, Malawi, is the new hemlsman, Chapola was elected President of the Association at a meeting held in that country recently.

Despite Malawi’s insurance penetration being at a paltry 3 percent, an expert in the industry says the country is doing better than regional neighbours, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

Malawi has eight general insurance companies, four life insurance companies, 10 insurance brokers, one reinsurance company and several insurance agents.

Three percent of insurance penetration in Malawi encompasses urban, rural, illiterate, literate, rich and poor sections of the society.
Figures provided indicate that Kenya, an East African country, has a 2.62 percent insurance penetration, Zambia, the western neighbour, is at 2.4 percent and Tanzania to the north is at 2.2 percent.

The average global penetration rate for the insurance market is at 7.5 percent with United Kingdom as the global leader at 16.5 percent, trailed by South Africa at 16 percent and Taiwan at 14.5 percent.

He said to measure the extent of the deepening of the insurance industry, there is need to look at insurance penetration, density, gross premium and total assets whilst the global insurance density the average premium expenditure per capita is at $555 (K84 360), Malawi density is measured at about $4.76 (K676).

The top three countries in the world, in terms of insurance density, are United Kingdom at $6 647, Ireland $5 565 and Switzerland at $5 562.

Meanwhile, Mrs Dorothy Chapeyama, Managing Director of Reunion Insurance Company was elected as the Vice President of the Association.

Chapeyama is a graduate of the University of Malawi holding a Bachelor of Commerce (Accountancy) Degree with more than 20 years of work experience in Insurance.

Her work experience is supported by numerous training in various fields of Insurance, Management and Finance from both within and outside Malawi with broad international exposure in her career.

Dorothy is a Chartered Insurer after qualifying as an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of UK (ACII) IN 1999.
She is an active member in the Insurance Industry and has held several positions in the Insurance Institute and Insurance Association of Malawi:

She is the current Vice President of the Insurance Institute of Malawi and played major role in the establishment of Insurance Training in Malawi; She has  chaired the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Yellow Card Insurance Scheme and She is one of the founding members of Reunion Insurance Company Limited