For the Almamoon team, this recognition carries particular significance. It is not the achievement of an individual or a single initiative; it is the culmination of years of deliberate, collective effort by every member of the organisation, from client-facing advisors and claims specialists to technology teams and operational staff who work behind the scenes every day.

Since receiving its operating license in 2008, Almamoon has established itself as one of the pioneering Saudi companies in the insurance sector.

Over the years, the company has steadily expanded its capabilities, its certifications, and its ambitions.

Today, Almamoon holds ISO 9001 and ISO 10002 certifications — reflecting its commitment to quality management and client satisfaction — as well as a Sharia compliance certificate from the Sharia Review House LLC, affirming the firm’s adherence to Islamic principles in all its operations.

In 2024, the company achieved another landmark by obtaining an electronic insurance brokerage activity license, further positioning it at the forefront of digital transformation within the sector.

The company’s growth is driven by a fundamental philosophy that the Almamoon team embodies every day: a broker’s value is not determined by the number of policies written, but by the quality of outcomes provided to the clients they serve.

Technology In Service Of People
One of the defining features of Almamoon’s innovative approach is its integration of technology not as an end in itself, but as a means of enhancing the human experience of health insurance.

Secure API integrations connect directly to leading insurers, reducing turnaround times and minimising errors, while Microsoft Power BI dashboards transform raw claims data into visual insights — enabling HR and finance teams to make informed, data-driven decisions.

In practice, this means that a corporate HR manager can access real-time claim statuses, analyse cost trends, and request policy adjustments within minutes, without the protracted back-and-forth that has long been associated with traditional brokerage models.

This is the kind of operational transformation that Almamoon’s team has worked meticulously to build and refine.

Serving A Diverse And Growing Market
Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification has resulted in the most diverse workforce the Kingdom has ever seen, with employers ranging from multinational corporations and semi-government bodies to fast-growing SMEs and family-owned businesses.

Almamoon recognised that a one-size-fits-all approach fails in such a varied environment, and so the team developed deep expertise in crafting customised health insurance solutions tailored to the specific profile, size, and risk appetite of each client.

This client-first mindset has been central to every decision the team has made — from product design to claims support, from policy review cycles to the tone of every client interaction.

Aligned With The Kingdom’s Vision
Almamoon’s growth is firmly aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. As healthcare development and workforce wellbeing remain central pillars of the Kingdom’s national transformation agenda, Almamoon’s role as a strategic insurance partner has never been more relevant.

The team’s efforts to improve coverage accessibility, streamline benefits management, and raise health insurance literacy among clients contribute directly to broader national objectives.

With a Local Content Certificate achieving a 75% score, Almamoon also demonstrates a meaningful commitment to Saudi economic growth, ensuring that the company’s success translates into opportunity and value for the communities it operates within.

Recognition That Belongs To The Whole Team
The International Finance Awards 2025 for Most Innovative Health Insurance Broker in Saudi Arabia is a proud moment for everyone at Almamoon.

It validates a shared conviction that doing things the right way, for the right reasons, and with the right people, ultimately produces results that speak for themselves.

As the company looks ahead, the ambition remains unchanged: to continue earning the clients’ trust, to keep raising the standards of health insurance brokerage in the Kingdom, and to ensure that every person Almamoon serves feels genuinely supported, informed, and protected.

Talking about Almamoon’s success, the company’s CEO, Mamdouh Tantawi, said, “This award belongs to every person on the Almamoon team. It is a reflection of the dedication, professionalism, and genuine care that our people bring to their work every day. We set out not to be recognised but to be trusted — by our clients, our partners, and the communities we serve in the Kingdom. To receive this recognition from International Finance is deeply humbling, and it reinforces our collective resolve to continue leading with innovation, integrity, and a steadfast commitment to the people at the heart of everything we do.”

Image Courtesy: Almamoon Insurance Broker

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The acquisition also adds another chapter in the phenomenon of mega buyouts, which has become more typical in the ‌highly fragmented insurance brokerage industry in recent years, with companies shelling out more cash to bolster their market presence and competitive edge.

Aon, through the USI Insurance’s takeover, will be further expanding its presence in the vast and fast-growing American middle-market insurance segment, which caters to mid-sized businesses.

“USI will substantially enhance our middle-market footprint and expand access for our firm in the E&S (excess & surplus) segment,” Aon CEO Greg Case said, while noting the rapid emergence of the E&S segment among the fastest-growing areas in US commercial insurance.

The middle-market segment in the world’s largest economy is currently pegged at over USD 40 billion, accounting for more than one-third of commercial property and casualty direct written premiums.

“These (middle-market) ⁠companies are a critical engine of the economy, and there is greater opportunity to meet their increasingly complex needs,” Case told analysts.

The USI deal, which builds on Aon’s USD 13 billion acquisition of middle-market property and casualty broker NFP in 2024, will add more strength to its health, talent, and human capital advisory offerings.

Established in 1994, USI is an insurance brokerage and consulting firm that offers property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, and program and retirement services. It began with a single office and has since scaled into the tenth largest American insurance brokerage with about USD 3 billion in annual revenue.

Aon, on the other hand, as one of the world’s largest insurance brokers, caters to clients in over 120 countries, helping them navigate increasing complexity and volatility.

The USI deal is expected to close in the fourth ‌quarter of ⁠2026 and anticipated to boost Aon’s adjusted profit in 2028. As per Case, Aon plans to fund the deal through debt and doesn’t expect near-term share buybacks as it prioritizes debt repayment.

USI CEO Mike Sicard will serve as Aon’s president and global CEO of its middle-market platform.

For KKR, the USI sale marks the latest in a run of its investment exits, despite the private equity industry witnessing firms struggling to sell portfolio companies. The second quarter was the largest monetization quarter in KKR’s history.

KKR and Canadian pension fund Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec bought USI in a USD 4.3 billion deal in 2017. Since then, the private equity major boosted its stake in the firm and became USI’s largest stakeholder.

Under KKR’s ownership, the middle-market broker nearly tripled its revenue.

Piper Sandler analysts termed the sale as a “success story” for ⁠the strategic holdings unit through which KKR invests its money, differing from the traditional private equity model of using capital from outside investors.

“The sale (delivers) a meaningful return on original invested capital and validates KKR’s management’s message that return of capital to its backers is accelerating despite external market skepticism around PE monetization activity broadly,” Piper Sandler said.

As per KKR, the USI sale represents roughly a sixfold return on its investment in 2017 and a 3.4-fold return on the capital invested over the life of its investment in the insurance firm. The deal with Aon is expected to generate roughly USD 2 billion of adjusted profit for KKR.

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Allianz is among a small number of parties that have held discussions with advisers to the AA over a possible transaction, according to Sky News. Banking sources said the German insurer had been in talks for several months, although they cautioned that negotiations remained uncertain and a deal was not imminent.

Reports suggest that private equity firm EQT has also explored a potential acquisition, and at least one other bidder has been circling the company.

The AA’s owners—Towerbrook Capital Partners, Warburg Pincus, and Stonepeak—have been pursuing a dual-track process for much of this year.

They are reportedly weighing a sale against a return to the London Stock Exchange, with a flotation potentially taking place in 2027.

The company has well over 16 million customers, including nearly 3.5 million members, and attended around 3.5 million breakdowns across Britain’s roads in 2025. It operates a fleet of about 2,700 patrols and also runs the country’s largest driving school business through the AA and BSM brands.

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“ADB is getting more money where it is needed most: small businesses, lower-income families, and communities that struggle to access finance. By sharing risk with leading insurers, we can lend more through financial institutions, support more jobs and homes, and make our capital work harder for development,” said ADB President Masato Kanda, while talking in detail about the initiative.

ADB’s five-year agreement expands a credit insurance program that the global lender launched in 2022. The “Master Framework Program for Financial Institutions” will increase ADB’s capacity to provide longer-term financing through banks and other financial institutions for small businesses, microfinance, affordable housing; and other borrowers that struggle to obtain credit.

“ADB uses credit insurance to stretch its resources and direct more financing into markets where capital remains scarce. By sharing risk with private insurers, ADB can support more lending without requiring additional capital,” Kanda stated further.

Under the new arrangement, participating insurers will cover part of the loss if a financial institution fails to repay an ADB loan.

“The insurers will not make the loans themselves. Their coverage allows ADB to transfer some of the risk from its balance sheet, free capital for new loans, and manage its exposure across markets and borrowers,” Kanda remarked.

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Noting that the sector has historically been resistant to major disruption, McKinsey stated that while developments like globalisation, digitalisation and platform-based business models have reshaped many industries, they have had a more limited impact on insurance’s underlying economic structure.

“While the global insurance industry has experienced steady premium growth over the past two decades, improvements in operating leverage have been limited across property and casualty (P&C), life and health insurance, and a management consulting firm,” McKinsey noted.

As per the management consultancy firm, gross written premiums have increased by around 4.9% annually since 2005. The tally reached approximately USD 8.3 trillion in 2025, while profits before tax have grown by around 4.3% during the same period, reaching approximately USD 580 billion. Rising capital requirements have contributed to this slower profit growth.

“Competitive positions have shifted gradually, capital movement across regions and business lines has remained relatively slow, and public markets have generally continued to view insurance as a stable industry with predictable earnings,” McKinsey said.

While the private capital has introduced innovation in areas such as balance sheet management and investment strategies, it has had less impact across other parts of the insurance value chain. As per McKinsey, the insurance industry of 2026 would remain recognisable to executives who viewed the sector in 2006.

“This stability has also brought benefits. The insurance industry has continued to provide significant shareholder returns through dividends and share buybacks, while maintaining an important role in supporting economies and societies, including during major events such as the global pandemic,” McKinsey stated further.

Talking about AI’s role in transforming the insurance industry, McKinsey sees the sector facing increasing pressure from the disruptive tech, with the latter having the potential to influence four long-standing industry challenges: slower growth and declining relevance, high distribution costs, limited productivity gains and a historically gradual pace of change.

“There is a growing gap between rising global risks and the insurance industry’s ability to provide coverage. Insurance revenues have grown more slowly than many major industries and global GDP, with personal lines representing 1% of global GDP in 2023 compared with 1.2% in 2019. Growth in developed markets has often been driven by pricing increases rather than expansion into new areas of risk,” McKinsey noted.

The firm also highlighted significant protection gaps in emerging risk areas. As per its estimates, the global natural catastrophe protection gap reached USD 133 billion in 2025, while less than 1% of global cyber costs are currently insured, representing a potential gap of around USD 900 billion. The company argues that insurance is becoming less aligned with an increasingly complex risk environment.

Keeping the above-mentioned industry challenges in mind, McKinsey pitched for the AI’s aggressive adoption within the industry ecosystem, as the move could create opportunities for the sector through new risks, new solutions and expanded market access. AI may also introduce additional areas of insurable risk, including AI liability, non-physical business interruption and workforce-related risks linked to AI adoption.

As per the consultancy giant, next-generation elements like parametric insurance, embedded micro-coverage and real-time data-driven policies could make insurance accessible to customers and risks that have previously been difficult to serve economically.

While highlighting a potential shift from traditional risk transfer towards broader risk partnerships, McKinsey explains that conventional insurance has largely focused on responding after losses occur, whereas AI could give the sector the real edge by enabling insurers to provide continuous monitoring, insights and prevention support before incidents happen.

“Examples of this approach could include telematics systems that provide real-time driving guidance while adjusting premiums, commercial risk management supported by satellite and Internet of Things data, and AI-enabled health support designed to improve health outcomes. These approaches already exist in limited areas but have not yet become central to the wider insurance proposition,” McKinsey noted.

“AI could further improve access to insurance markets by strengthening underwriting and claims capabilities. Emerging risks like climate-related property risks, cyber threats and AI-related exposures remain difficult to price because insurers lack sufficient reliable data and predictive confidence,” it added further.

As per McKinsey, improved data analysis, continuous model updates and more accurate claims assessment could help insurers price risk more effectively and expand coverage. Carriers developing these capabilities early may gain advantages through improved loss ratios, stronger pricing confidence and the ability to enter markets where competitors may remain cautious.

However, challenges remain too, with the consultancy firm noting that some digital risks not behaving like traditional insurance exposures, as shared infrastructure, interconnected supply chains and common technology dependencies could create highly correlated losses. Insurers entering these areas will need strong analytical capabilities to understand how risks develop and spread rather than simply creating new products.

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Saudi Re said the transaction will be financed from its own capital resources, with the acquisition supporting its expansion into international markets and accelerating growth.

The Saudi-listed firm said it is also looking to strengthen its presence in the Lloyd’s market, a UK-based insurance and reinsurance hub where Ada Risk operates Syndicate 2024, to develop specialized reinsurance solutions and diversify its underwriting portfolio.

London-registered Ada Risk is a holding company focused on underwriting, risk management, and the global aerospace and aviation insurance sector. Syndicate 2024 underwrites energy, marine and energy liability, ports and terminals physical damage, cargo and freight, aviation war, aviation all-risks, and specie business. The syndicate graduated from special purpose arrangement to full status in 2025 and received permission to underwrite for the 2026 year of account, having added several senior hires over the past year.

Saudi Re already operates in more than 40 countries across the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Lloyd’s market and holds an A-minus rating from S&P Global and an A3 from Moody’s. The reinsurer has been on an expansion drive since Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund completed a capital increase in January 2025, taking a 23.08% stake and lifting Saudi Re’s capital base from SR891 million to SR1.15 billion. That deal was aimed at strengthening the firm’s financial stability and credit profile as the national reinsurer.

The Ada Risk investment extends Saudi Re’s reach into specialist Lloyd’s underwriting, an area increasingly targeted by GCC-based (re)insurers seeking exposure to aviation, marine, and energy risk outside their home markets. It also follows a broader trend of Gulf insurers and sovereign-backed investors deepening ties with the Lloyd’s market as a route to diversified, internationally rated underwriting capacity.

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While life insurance remained the largest growth segment (2,861 billion euro), it was followed by P&C (2,320 billion euro) and health (1,688 billion euro).

“The life insurance market remained robust in 2025, although the exceptional post-rate-hike boom in North America has clearly lost momentum. Global life premiums grew by 6.9% in 2025, down from the exceptionally strong 11.3% recorded in 2024 but still comfortably above historical norms. The moderation was driven primarily by North America, where the annuity boom fuelled by households locking in higher interest rates has started to lose momentum,” Allianz Research noted.

Asia, however, has further consolidated its status as the world’s largest life insurance market, supported by demographic aging, high savings rates, and less comprehensive public pension systems. The life insurance premiums in Asia grew by 9.9% in 2025, with China alone expanding by 11.4%.

“Health insurance is becoming the industry’s clearest structural growth story. Global health premiums increased by 12.3% in 2025, the strongest expansion since 2014, as aging populations, rising medical costs, and pressure on public healthcare systems continued to drive demand for private protection. North America alone grew by 14.9% as medical inflation accelerated further, with the US now accounting for more than 70% of global health premiums. Despite some normalization following the post-Covid surge, long-term growth potential remains particularly strong in Asia, where health insurance penetration is still below 1% in almost all markets,” Allianz Research said.

Among Asia’s key insurance markets, Singapore recorded strong growth of 10.7% in 2025, with total premium income rising to 39.7 billion euro. P&C insurance premiums, on the other hand, expanded by 8.3%, while life insurance premiums grew by 10.8%, well above the 2015-2025 average of 7.5%, supported by population aging and increasing demand for private pension provision. Health insurance premiums rose by 12.6%, reflecting growing demand for supplementary health coverage.

“Overall, the global insurance market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5.3% over the next ten years, slightly above economic output. For Singapore, overall annual growth is expected to be 5.7% (nominal GDP: 3.7%). For P&C, Allianz expects global annual growth of 4.7% up to 2036 (Singapore: 5.6%). The segment will show solid growth rates in almost all markets, as the increasing need for protection is a global phenomenon,” the agency noted.

Allianz Research also remains confident about the prospects of life insurance in Asia, which can expect annual growth of 4.9% thanks to higher interest rates on the continent.

“Wider Asia remains the growth engine, driven by the need for private provision in the face of accelerating demographic change. The smallest segment, health insurance, should remain the most dynamic, with annual growth of 6.7% (Singapore: 8.4%). Asia, in particular, still has a lot of catching up to do,” it concluded.

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Somantra’s study, which tracked 20 Australian insurance brands across 34,278 real consumer conversations on Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT throughout May 2026, also arrives in conjunction with a separate GlobalData poll that found the broader industry still practicing caution about AI’s maturity, a posture that, in GlobalData’s opinion, may be costing mid-tier and specialty insurers ground that will prove difficult to recover.

Somantra’s data showed two coins of the Aussie insurance industry, an AI-first search shift and a massive stretch of the market being “unclaimed.”

“Across the detailed, intent-driven queries consumers pose to AI platforms—questions about specific coverage scenarios, eligibility conditions, and product comparisons—70% of responses named no insurance brand. Across 34,278 tracked conversations, that represents approximately 24,000 consumer research interactions in a single month in which no Australian insurer received a mention on either platform. The pool of domains cited by AI engines contracted 21% between March and May 2026, falling from 10,777 to 8,488 unique domains. As that pool narrows, the barrier to entering AI-generated recommendations rises,” Somantra noted.

“This is not a problem. This is an opportunity. Every one of those brandless responses is a gap in the market, which is proof that the right content, structured the right way and published on the sources AI engines trust, could put a brand into that answer instead of nobody at all. The window is closing. Every month, more of the long tail gets claimed by whichever brand shows up first with the right content on the right sources. Waiting for AI search to mature before acting just hands that ground to a competitor,” said Arun Prasad, founder of Somantra.

“Where AI platforms do recommend brands, attention is concentrated among a handful of insurers. On ChatGPT, three brands – Allianz, NRMA, and AAMI – accounted for half of all insurance-related mentions. Nine brands collectively covered 90% of total mentions, leaving the remaining 11 tracked brands competing for a thin slice of visibility. Google AI Overviews distributed attention more broadly, though not substantially so. Four brands reached the 50% threshold, and 11 were needed to cover 90% of mentions,” the study remarked.

Among the major industry players, Allianz recorded the highest combined total at 13,437 mentions across both platforms, followed by NRMA (at 12,524) and Budget Direct (at 10,708).

“At the other end, Ozicare appeared in 62 conversations, Coles Insurance in 517, and Qantas Insurance in 895—figures that suggest these brands are largely absent from AI-mediated consumer research, regardless of their standing on conventional search,” Prasad said, while adding, “Google gives you options. ChatGPT gives you a shortlist, and the shortlist is getting shorter. If you are not already in the top tier on a given platform, you are fighting over scraps of visibility, not competing on equal terms.”

Also, the study discovered a “low agreement” between the Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT, with both tools recommending the same brand for the same query in only 27.9% of cases in May 2026, up from 23.7% in March. In approximately seven out of 10 head-to-head comparisons, a consumer asking the same question on each platform received a different brand recommendation.

“Budget Direct illustrates the platform divergence risk in concrete terms. It led all brands on Google AI Overviews with 8,556 mentions, yet only 20.1% of its total AI visibility came from ChatGPT. For every five times Budget Direct appeared across both platforms, four of those appearances were on Google alone. As consumers increasingly use ChatGPT alongside Google to research financial products, a brand with that degree of platform concentration carries exposure it may not yet be measuring. For brands currently underrepresented on one platform, the divergence also creates an opening. Because Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT are forming their assessments of brand authority independently, a brand shut out of one platform’s preferred list may retain room to establish presence on the other,” the report said.

“The dual combination of expanding opportunity surface area and divergence in brand recommendations between the AI search engines is the biggest opportunity for brands right now. Large brands have spent a decade optimizing for a single search engine. That playbook does not transfer to a world where two major platforms disagree most of the time and where most of the specific questions consumers ask are not being answered by anyone,” Prasad remarked.

“The opportunity is not evenly distributed across product lines, and the distinction matters for insurers assessing where AI search effort is most likely to yield results. Car insurance generated the highest volume of brand mentions at 22,777, followed by home and contents at 20,591 and motorcycle at 16,376. In these categories, established brands have accumulated visibility that a new entrant or smaller competitor would need sustained effort to displace,” he added further.

Pet insurance and life insurance, on the other hand, presented a different picture. Pet recorded 2,457 total brand mentions across both platforms, and the life segment registered 1,283. Also, these are the same categories where fewer brands currently feature in AI-generated responses.

“An insurer in either line that moves early to build presence on the sources AI engines cite faces less entrenched competition than one attempting to gain ground in car or home, where category leaders have already established substantial leads,” Somantra explained.

“Within categories, those leads are significant. Allianz held 3,941 mentions in travel insurance; NRMA led car with 3,238; QBE led motorcycle with 2,896; and Budget Direct led pet with 940. The same brandless-query dynamic that applies across the market applies within these product lines: second and third-tier brands trail category leaders by margins that the data suggests are widening with each reporting cycle,” it added further.

The two-month gap between Somantra’s March and May audits produced movement across the board, with AI search visibility appearing responsive to recent content and citation activity in a way that shifts the competitive position of brands more quickly than conventional organic search typically does.

“Allianz added 960 mentions to move past NRMA into the top overall position. Budget Direct posted the largest percentage gain among tracked brands, up 9.7%, displacing AAMI from the top three. AAMI recorded the steepest absolute decline, losing 2,147 mentions – an 18.1% drop. Bingle fell 30.8%, GIO fell 29.3%, and CGU dropped 27.8%. Citation patterns on ChatGPT also shifted. In March, Canstar was the platform’s most-cited domain with 232 references. By May, both Finder and Canstar each exceeded 900 citations, with Finder taking the top position at 902. Reddit climbed from 147 to 387 citations, reflecting a source mix that extends well beyond traditional comparison-site ecosystems,” Somantra concluded.

Talking about the GlobalData poll of 113 insurance industry respondents, conducted across Q1 and Q2 of 2026, the survey reported nearly a quarter believing AI had not yet reached a level of maturity suitable for widespread use within the industry.

Ben Carey-Evans, senior insurance analyst at GlobalData, attributed the hesitation partly to the narrow scope of current implementations and to unresolved questions about accountability, as he said, “This might be because use cases to date are largely around customer service and chatbots rather than full-scale implementation. Regulation has not fully caught up yet, and there is concern around who is liable for mistakes made by AI.”

“Those liability and regulatory questions are not abstract for an industry that distributes financial products to consumers. As AI platforms increasingly surface insurance brand recommendations in response to consumer queries, the question of how those recommendations are generated and who bears responsibility when they are incomplete or inaccurate sits unresolved across the industry,” he added further.

“A shortage of in-house expertise ranked as the second-most-cited concern in the GlobalData poll. The firm’s job analytics data recorded approximately 63,293 active AI-related insurance roles in 2025—the highest on record and around 51% above 2024 levels. The hiring response reflects the scale of the gap, even as the technology continues to outpace the industry’s capacity to build expertise around it,” Carey-Evans remarked.

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The conference, as per the experts, has provided a clear roadmap for insurers seeking growth in a market long constrained by weak penetration, noting that the implementation of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025 has created a regulatory environment that can support rapid expansion.

“The call came as the Commissioner for Insurance, Olusegun Omosehin, declared at the conference that Africa’s low insurance penetration should be viewed as a multi-billion-dollar growth opportunity rather than a market weakness, citing the continent’s existing premium pool of about USD 68 billion,” reported Nigerian daily The Guardian.

At the conference, insurance executives argued that the biggest challenge facing the industry operators was no longer product availability but distribution, warning that conventional agency networks would continue to leave millions of potential customers outside the insurance ecosystem.

According to industry estimates (discussed at the conference), Africa’s digital economy now includes more than 500 million mobile wallet users, offering insurers a ready-made platform to distribute retail products without worrying about the heavy costs associated with physical branch expansion.

The experts also urged Nigerian insurers to accelerate partnerships with telecom companies, fintech firms and digital payment providers to deliver insurance products through mobile applications, unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) channels and embedded financial services.

The Director-General of the Nigerian Insurers Association, Bola Odukale, told The Guardian that the Cairo conference reinforced the need for operators to rethink traditional distribution models and embrace technology-enabled channels that are capable of reaching millions of Nigerians currently facing exclusions, both from the African country’s financial framework and its insurance services.

According to Odukale, the insurance industry can no longer depend solely on conventional agency networks if it hopes to achieve meaningful penetration growth.

“The opportunities are enormous. What the Cairo conference has shown is that insurance penetration can improve significantly when operators leverage existing digital infrastructure and focus on solving customers’ real-life risks through accessible products,” she said.

While stating that innovation must be matched with capacity development and professional competence, President/Chairman of the Council of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, Yetunde Ilori, said, “The increasing deployment of policies across digital platforms requires continuous training to ensure ethical standards, customer protection and sustainable growth.”

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Mrs Awani, while delivering her speech on the theme titled “Insurance as an Enabler of Economic Growth for All: Taking Advantage of Free Trade Across Africa” during the 52nd Conference and Annual General Assembly of the African Insurance Organisation (AIO) in Cairo, Egypt, said the success of the AfCFTA and Africa’s industrialisation ambitions would depend largely on the ability of insurers to support trade, infrastructure development, investment and cross-border commerce through effective risk management.

According to the senior official of the Afreximbank, the continent’s dream of creating a single market of 1.5 billion people with a combined GDP of about USD 3.4 trillion cannot be achieved without a robust insurance industry capable of underwriting the risks associated with increased trade and investment flows across the continent.

“While the AfCFTA represents the largest free trade area in the world by number of participating countries, insurance penetration across Africa remains between 2% and 3%, significantly below the global average of 6.8%, creating a major gap in the continent’s economy. No nation can trade beyond the limits of its own capacity to carry risk. If cargo cannot be insured, it does not move. If receivables cannot be covered, they cannot be financed. If political and currency risks cannot be priced and managed, projects do not reach financial close,” she said.

Awani blamed the low level of insurance penetration across the continent as the key factor behind constrained investment, which, in turn, has raised financing costs, apart from forcing a significant portion of African risks to be ceded to foreign markets, resulting in capital flight and reduced domestic capacity.

“The AfCFTA was designed not merely to eliminate tariffs but to transform Africa’s economic structure through industrialisation, stronger regional value chains and increased intra-African trade. Recent data showed Africa’s merchandise trade recovering to USD 1.35 trillion, while intra-African trade rose to USD 206.6 billion and foreign direct investment surged by 75% to USD 97 billion, underscoring the enormous opportunities emerging across the continent,” she stated further.

However, despite these positive signs, fragmented insurance regulations, weak capital markets, inadequate risk data and limited financial inclusion have continued to impede the growth of Africa’s insurance sector. For Awani, the harmonisation of insurance regulations under the AfCFTA framework would enable insurers to operate more seamlessly across borders, apart from achieving economies of scale and building the capacity required to support major infrastructure and trade transactions.

“A continent assembling itself into one market cannot remain a patchwork of small, fragmented and undercapitalised pools of risk,” she stated.

The Afreximbank executive also highlighted several initiatives being deployed by her bank, with the goal of supporting continental trade. Prominent among them is the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which currently connects 27 countries and more than 180 banks and fintechs, significantly reducing transaction costs and settlement times for cross-border payments. Then solutions like the Trans-Africa Bond Alliance and AfrexInsure have been tailored as strategic platforms designed to deepen African underwriting capacity, facilitate trade and finance and retain more insurance premiums on the continent.

“The continent must urgently reverse the long-standing practice of exporting a substantial share of insurance premiums to foreign markets through excessive reinsurance arrangements. Historically, African insurers have ceded between 70% and 90% of premiums in specialised sectors such as energy, aviation and large commercial risks to offshore reinsurers, depriving the continent of capital, expertise and underwriting experience,” Awani said.

She also informed that AfrexInsure, established in 2022, has already supported transactions across more than 25 African countries with over USD 20 billion in sums insured, while prioritising the use of African underwriting capacity before seeking support outside the continent.

While maintaining that insurance should no longer be viewed as a peripheral financial service but as essential economic infrastructure that lowers the capital cost, improves bankability, supports trade and ultimately enables sustainable growth, Awani concluded, ‘There comes a moment in the life of every economy when it must learn to carry more of its own risk.’ For Africa, that moment is now.”

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