CAN INSURANCE SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT?

This fact sheet by FSD Africa provides a country diagnostic of the insurance markets in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda, highlighting a significant risk-protection gap and the limited capacity of these markets to support large-scale infrastructure investment.

• There is a substantial risk-protection gap in the analyzed regions; for example, 51% of the adult population reported facing at least one insurable risk in the last year, yet only 4.1 million people are covered by insurance other than government-provided health insurance.
• A significant portion of the population is potentially reachable for insurance services, consisting of 138 million adults who possess a bank account, mobile phone, formal employment, and earn USD $5 or more per day, yet less than 40% of this target group has insurance coverage.
• The insurance markets in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda face structural constraints, including high expense ratios and a preference for short-term investments. Specifically, short-term investments account for 75% of insurer investments in Ghana and 54.7% in Nigeria.
• There is limited local capacity to handle large risks, with a high percentage of non-life risk transferred offshore: 81% in Nigeria, 65% in Ghana, and 47% in Kenya.
• The combined insurance assets across the four countries exceeded USD 10 billion in 2016, which is noted to be smaller than the total assets of the South African insurance sector. This occurs alongside a large infrastructure investment gap estimated between USD 0.4 billion and 8.9 billion per year from 2016 to 2040.

APA

FSD Africa (n.d.). CAN INSURANCE SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT? https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Insurance-infographics-new-29.09.19.pdf

Chicago

FSD Africa. CAN INSURANCE SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT? n.d. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Insurance-infographics-new-29.09.19.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=FSD Africa |title=CAN INSURANCE SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT? |url=https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Insurance-infographics-new-29.09.19.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fsdafricandcan, author = {{FSD Africa}}, title = {{CAN INSURANCE SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT?}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Insurance-infographics-new-29.09.19.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }