Risks underwriting companies and ancillary professionals in the continental insurance market under the auspices of the African Insurance Organisations (AIO) have resolved to do everything within their limits to help develop the continental agricultural industry.
The operators, including insurance and reinsurance companies as well as insurance broking and ancillary professionals in the continental insurance market, made this resolution during the just concluded 41st AIO Conference and General Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda.
The insurers identified food security as the greatest challenge facing Africans, saying that they were ready to apply the necessary technology to boost the effectiveness and efficiency of crop insurance across the continent.
They assured that going forward agricultural risks insurers would adopt the use of necessary technology in crop insurance as well as satellite imaging to reduce claims settlement and management processes.
“In order to harness the huge potential of its largely untapped informal economic sector and to draw from the success of pivotal efforts of M-PESA in mobile money operation, the African insurance industry should leverage on technology especially telecommunications and the mobile telephony to promote financial inclusion among rural populace and make its products and services accessible and affordable, thereby breaking the cycle of poverty in the continent,” they said.
The insurers also said they were ready to partner relevant agencies, organisations and governments to address the food challenge facing the continent.
They also assured insurance consumers that they would collaborate with other organisations including commercial and development banks, micro finance institutions, agricultural processors and buyers, non-governmental organisations, government agencies to provide the much-needed finance to grow and develop the national and continental agricultural sectors.
Meanwhile, summarising the resolutions during the closing ceremony, the Secretary-General of the organisation, Ms. Prisca Soares, said there were huge potential in information technology for the insurance market that are yet to be explored, even as she underscored the need for effective regulation by the national insurance regulators to avoid fraud and deception of the policyholders by service providers.
She said insurance regulators in the AIO member countries need to collaborate with regulators in the banking, telecommunications and agricultural sectors to ensure that technology works for the benefit of the agricultural sector and the national economies in general.
Soares also observed that there was need for the operators to embrace e-insurance to reach the potential insurance consumers wherever they may be and encouraged the operators to also deploy mobile money platform to collect their premium and reduce their operational cost.
The secretary-general also commended Rwandan government for its role in deepening insurance penetration using various developmental policies, particularly its poverty alleviation programmes.
She also encouraged other national government across the continent to further create enabling environments for the insurance to thrive and take its pride of place in the national economies.
About 700 delegates from Africa, Middle East, Asia, United Kingdom and United States of America participated in the conference.
Source - http://www.thisdaylive.com/
