What if one of the most underestimated barriers to the continent’s growth was not the lack of projects, ambition, or even capital, but the low capacity to absorb shocks?
This is the argument put forward in the white paper “Unlocking Africa’s Growth Potential: The Strategic Role of Insurance and Reinsurance”, published on the occasion of the 2026 Africa CEO Forum in Kigali. The report suggests considering insurance and reinsurance not just as technical products reserved for financial actors, but as instruments of economic stability, budget protection, and long-term capital mobilization.
The observation is simple: an economy that does not know how to transfer risk remains vulnerable. Every climate disaster, agricultural crisis, health shock, or industrial accident can quickly turn into a budget crisis. When losses are not insured, they are directly absorbed by households, businesses, or states. This results in emergency expenses, budget reallocations, increased debt, or a slowdown in investments.
The case of natural disasters is particularly revealing. In Africa, only 6 to 7% of disaster-related losses are insured: more than 90% of the costs remain the responsibility of the economies themselves. In this context, a flood, drought, or cyclone not only represents a human tragedy; it is also a macroeconomic shock that can jeopardize years of development efforts.
The white paper also highlights a revealing gap with emerging Asia. In the early 2000s, per capita GDP levels in Africa and emerging Asia were similar. Twenty years later, emerging Asia has almost tripled its per capita income, while African progress has remained much more limited. At the same time, non-life insurance penetration has significantly increased in emerging Asia, while it has slightly decreased on the African continent. The issue is not just about insurance; it concerns how economies organize their resilience and secure their development.
Several examples show that suitable models already exist. Kenya has started integrating disaster risk financing mechanisms into its public financial management. Morocco has established a national system for covering catastrophic events, combining mandatory insurance and solidarity funds for uninsured populations. In Nigeria, the development of index-based agricultural insurance products has covered over 1.47 million farmers, reducing producers’ direct exposure to climate shocks.
Beyond protection, insurance also plays a key role in financing development. In the most structured markets, insurance companies collect long-term savings that can be directed towards government bonds, real estate, infrastructure, or productive projects. At a time when the annual infrastructure financing gap is estimated between 50 and 90 billion dollars, this ability to transform domestic savings into patient capital becomes a strategic issue.
The challenge is twofold: better protect economies against shocks, but also better mobilize local resources to finance growth. This requires concrete reforms: modernization of legal frameworks, strengthening of regulators, development of microinsurance, building citizen trust, support for innovation, and integration of insurance into budget, climate, and agricultural strategies.
For Dr. Corneille Karekezi, CEO of Africa Re Group, the message is clear: insurance and reinsurance must be recognized as development instruments, just like banks, capital markets, or industrial policies. It is not just about repairing after crises, but about anticipating, transferring, and better distributing risks to protect growth.
Because in an exposed but underinsured economy, each crisis costs more, lasts longer, and leaves deeper scars. Risk is not a peripheral issue: it is one of the most strategic blind spots in development.
