The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed, has urged West African insurance providers to restructure the sector for global competitiveness.
The Punch reported that she gave a speech during the 50th-anniversary celebration and educational conference of the West African Insurance Companies Association in Lagos State, Nigeria.
The conference’s theme was “Re-positioning the insurance industry in West Africa for global competitiveness.”
She encouraged everyone present to believe in a new dawn, utilizing technological breakthroughs and a positive paradigm shift focused and ready to handle the projected rise in demand and unexplored side.
“I therefore urge the participants here today to think about and suggest strategies for repositioning the insurance sector in West Africa for global competitiveness.”
She pointed out that the goal of the African Continental Free Trade Area was to strengthen Africa’s collective voice and policy space in international trade negotiations, facilitate the movement of people to deepen economic integration and prosperity on the continent and accelerate intra-African trade by providing a single market for goods and services.
She also emphasized the importance of creating a top-notch insurance database in order to give a comprehensive overview of the operations of the sector in the sub-region.
The vice president of WAICA, Eddie Efekoha, pointed out that the organization represents insurance, reinsurance, and insurance brokerage firms in West Africa.
He claimed that over time, WAICA had given the area a platform to advance its residents’ knowledge of insurance, exchange commercial information, and build relationships with other insurance industry participants in the area.
“We have structured this conference to address the issue of rating insurance companies in West Africa to reposition them for global competitiveness in the full realization that insurance is a global business,” he added. “It is in furtherance of these noble objectives that we have packaged this conference.”
