By Favour Nnabugwu

Historically foreign reinsurance companies have provided the requisite engineering insurance advisory skills and benefited from premiums generated in Africa.

However, African insurers believe that the time has come for Africans to support Africa’s growth by using local engineering insurance skills as well as fast-tracking the transfer of knowledge and training for insurance companies across the continent to ensure that Africa strengthens its capability to support its own growth.

It is in light of this that Continental Reinsurance Plc launched a new specialist subsidiary, Continental Property and engineering Risk Services (CPeRS) to meet the growing demand for specialist engineering insurance risk advisory services, which is currently driven by Africa’s infrastructure and construction boom.

The firm said that with Africa’s investment in infrastructure, rapid urbanisation, projected economic growth, rising middle class, focus on regional integration and improved governance in many of Africa’s 54 nations, investment in construction on the continent is on a strong upwards trajectory. Consequently, the demand for specialist engineering insurance skills is also increasing, according to Mr. Lawrence Nazare, Executive Director of Continental Reinsurance.

Nazare said that there is need for companies to provide the required specialist insurance skills and expertise to support efforts to bolster the retention of African reinsurance premiums in the continent.

He said, “For this reason, we have strengthened our core engineering capability by enhancing our existing offering.”

The four key functions of CPeRS are underwriting of engineering and construction risks in Africa; risk and advisory services; claims handling services; and training for the insurance companies.

Mr. Cassim Hansa, a professional civil engineer and MBA graduate, with more than 20 years’ experience in both the engineering and insurance industries in the US and South Africa has been appointed Managing Director of CPeRS.

“Insurance professionals in Africa are hungry for training and unless we step in and fill the urgent need for knowledge transfer in the insurance sector, Africa is at risk of losing the opportunity to foreign firms by not developing its own capabilities,” said Hansa.

CPeRS is committed to facilitating skills transfer and training to develop a stronger specialist engineering insurance sector on the continent by delivering training sessions in fast-developing regions in Africa. In 2015, CPeRS will conduct training in Harare, Lagos, Maputo, Nairobi, Gaborone and Lusaka.

More than 200 delegates from insurance companies have already attended training sessions delivered by Continental Reinsurance on engineering and property risk services in 2014, in key regions across Africa, including Lagos, Harare and Addis Ababa.

CPeRS is registered in South Africa and will operate as a full subsidiary of Continental Reinsurance