File: President Muhammadu Buhari signing the Assembly of the Union on African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria while other officials witnessed the signing during the 12th Extra ordinary session and the First Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the African Union at the Palais des Congres, Niamey, Niger Republic. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida 07/07/2019

BY Cynthia Alo

The Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AFCFTA), will trigger a positive transformation of the reinsurance market in Nigeria and Africa at large.

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AM Best, a London based data and research focused company stated this in a 2019 report  on Sub- Saharan Africa.

The  report stated: “Successful development of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which was launched in July 2019, has the potential to significantly boost trade across Africa and support national markets as they grow. The impact the initiative may have on the African reinsurance segment is unclear, but it may yield some positive benefits due to the inevitable cross-border nature of reinsurance markets.

“The African Continent already benefits from a number of overlapping free trade zones that include the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the East Africa Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COM BSA).”

According to the report, barriers to keying into the African reinsurance markets have remained high and can be traced to protectionist local regulators.

It stated that the expansive geography of the continent and relatively small market size coupled with significant cultural and policy position differences have limited the level of potential interest from global participants.

“Many of the reinsures that were classified as national operators a decade ago have managed to position themselves in a pan African capacity today sometimes with hubs across the continent that allows them to better access their target markets.

It further stressed that the presence of mandatory cessions in some markets may restrict the opportunities available to foreign participants as they play an important role in supporting the underlying insurance markets, with many of the mandatory cession recipients maintaining a mandate that goes beyond a purely commercial existence.

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“With this trend, AM best researchers see changes in the reinsurance market with intra-governmental corporations like the recently announced free-trade arrangements which are encouraging signs of momentum towards more pan-regional business which could eventually benefit reinsurers.

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