[ACCI-CAVIE] In 2021, the 14 member countries* of the Inter-African Conference of Insurance Markets (CIMA) recorded CFAF 1,500 billion in premiums, up 10.6% from 2020, it was learned on the sidelines of the 47th General Assembly of the Federation of African National Insurance Companies (FANAF).

Specifically, for the Life market, premiums will grow by 13.3% from CFAF 487.5 billion in 2020 to CFAF 552.5 billion in 2021. The Non-Life market, for its part, will rise from CFAF 869 billion to CFAF 947.8 billion, an increase of 9.1%.

The first market of this first zone remains Côte d’Ivoire with a total issue of 465.1 billion CFA francs. The Ivorian elephant has clearly detached itself from Cameroon, with which it was more or less equal until 2010. Cameroon is still second with 229.9 billion, but must watch its back because Senegal (3rd) has generated 224.1 billion CFA francs of premiums in 2021. The entry into production of the GTA gas fields at the end of 2023 should see Dakar take second place from Yaoundé. And to think that only in 2012, Senegal was momentarily overtaken by Gabon (4th) before operating a kind of remonstrance favored by the major projects of the emergence.

In addition, the benefits paid during the same period in the CIMA zone have followed the same trend with an increase of 3.3%, from 880.7 billion in 2020 to 909.9 billion in 2021.

As regards investments, there was also an increase of 8.7%, rising from CFAF 2,761.7 billion in 2020 to CFAF 3,001.2 billion in 2021.  Financial products, for their part, amount to 101.8 billion in 2021 against 88.6 billion in 2020, a qualitative leap of 14.9% with a median rate of return of about 3.8%.

For markets outside the CIMA zone, data from a few countries such as South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia, the same growth dynamic is more pronounced.

In fact, written premiums in 2021 will total CFAF 38,146.6 billion, compared with CFAF 29,307.8 billion in 2020, representing a strong increase of 30.2%. The Life market will grow by 32.7% from CFAF 21,037.7 billion in 2020 to CFAF 27,910.4 billion in 2021. For its part, the non-life market has risen from CFAF 8,270.2 billion in 2020 to CFAF 10,236.2 billion in 2021, an increase of 23.8%. It should be noted that this zone is largely driven by the Life branch, which has recorded growth of more than 30%.

In this second zone, South Africa is the driving force and is also the leading African market with a total issue of CFAF 29,536.7 billion in 2021 compared with CFAF 22,075.7 billion in 2020, i.e. an increase of 33.8%. This country is followed by Morocco with 3,023.7 billion CFA francs in 2021 against 2,563.6 billion in 2020, an increase of 17.9% and Egypt with 1,619.4 billion CFA francs in 2021 against 1,283.4 billion in 2020, an increase of 26.6%.

As regards the penetration rate, it will be 1.01% in 2021 for the CIMA zone market.

However, this situation offers exponential room for growth in the years to come with the niches offered by mandatory insurance and microinsurance, for example. The non-CIMA market is much more mature (driven by South Africa) and will boost the penetration rate of the global FANAF zone to around 2.3% by 2021.

The 14 CIMA countries are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

By Albert Savana and LB