Insurance supervisors' responses to Covid-19

This report examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the African insurance sector and the subsequent responses from regulators across sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the balance between providing regulatory relief and monitoring market vulnerabilities.

• The Covid-19 pandemic caused significant economic damage to Africa in 2020, with a GDP contraction of 2.1%, a cost of at least $115 billion, and 30 million people pushed into extreme poverty.
• Mid-2020 research by FSD Africa, Cenfri, and the Organisation of Eastern and Southern African Insurers (OESAI) indicated that the pandemic hindered insurers' operational capabilities, specifically regarding the processing and payment of claims, premium collection, new sales, the launch of new products, and customer service.
• Insurance regulators in sub-Saharan Africa adopted varying strategies to manage the pandemic: some reduced regulatory requirements to help entities respond to the crisis, while others focused on pandemic-specific risks, such as the potential for the virus to spread through face-to-face business interactions.
• The pandemic created opportunities for regulators to improve market stability and efficiency through market consolidation and digitalisation, as well as to enhance supervision and reporting via supervisory technology (suptech) and regulatory technology (regtech).

APA

FSD Africa (2025). Insurance supervisors' responses to Covid-19. https://fsdafrica.org/publication/insurance-supervisors-responses-to-covid-19/

Chicago

FSD Africa. Insurance supervisors' responses to Covid-19. 2025. https://fsdafrica.org/publication/insurance-supervisors-responses-to-covid-19/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=FSD Africa |title=Insurance supervisors' responses to Covid-19 |date=30 May 2025 |url=https://fsdafrica.org/publication/insurance-supervisors-responses-to-covid-19/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fsdafrica2025insurance, author = {{FSD Africa}}, title = {{Insurance supervisors' responses to Covid-19}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, year = {2025}, month = may, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/publication/insurance-supervisors-responses-to-covid-19/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }