Johannesburg, Dec 14 (IANS/MAP) Kenya, Nigeria and Morocco are the fastest growing reinsurance markets in Africa, driven by the size and diversity of their economies, according to a yearly survey "Africa Reinsurance Pulse 2016".
African life insurance premiums totalled $43.7 billion in 2015, more than twice the size of the non-life insurance market ($20.4 billion) or about two-thirds of the market's total premium volume.
The top five life insurance markets of the region are South Africa ($37.5 billion), with a dominating share of 86 percent, followed by Morocco ($1.1 billion), Egypt ($1.0 billion), Kenya ($0.7 billion) and Namibia ($0.6 billion), a source said.
In 2015, African non-life premiums stood at $20.4 billion, representing about one percent of global non-life premiums. The five largest markets South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Kenya and Egypt account for 68 percent of the total. In non-life insurance, South Africa's market share, at 41 percent, is less dominant than in the life space.
Morocco is the continent's third fastest growing reinsurance market, according to the survey.
With primary insurance premiums of $3.1 billion in 2015 and an insurance penetration slightly above Kenya's, it is Africa's second largest insurance market after South Africa, the survey observed.
While the neighbouring countries Libya, Tunisia and Egypt suffer from political instability, Morocco is perceived "as a stable, reliable, well-regulated and technically advanced market," the source added, adding that the government's efforts to further open its reinsurance sector to the international market is followed with interest.
