Never waste a crisis: How sub-Saharan African insurers are being affected by, and are responding to, COVID-19

The report examines how COVID-19 disrupted the sub-Saharan African insurance value chain, forcing rapid digitalisation and straining balance sheets due to reduced premium income and investment returns. While household life and health policies generally covered the pandemic, business interruption insurance largely did not due to global reinsurance exclusions. The document highlights opportunities for insurers to adopt remote onboarding and for regulators to remove barriers to digital sales and manage potential market consolidation.

• Containment measures forced insurers to rapidly digitalise internal operations, requiring significant upfront investments but potentially leading to long-term efficiency gains.
• Most business interruption policies in sub-Saharan Africa exclude pandemics, largely because global reinsurance contracts typically exclude such systemic risks.
• Household-level insurance, specifically life, health, and hospitalisation products, generally cover COVID-19-related risks, though some traditional health policies vary by market.
• Insurance sales declined due to restrictions on physical movement, reduced bank lending affecting credit-life policies, and constrained consumer incomes.
• Insurers are facing liquidity constraints and financial vulnerability due to reduced premium income, lower investment returns on government securities and property, and high expense ratios.
• Accurate asset valuation is challenging due to illiquid markets and limited local skills, meaning some insurers may be closer to insolvency than their reports suggest.
• Regulatory uncertainty regarding the legality of electronic signatures and remote customer due diligence (CDD) onboarding has limited the transition to digital sales.
• Regulators have responded with varying degrees of proactivity, including providing financial relief, extending grace periods for premiums, and temporarily allowing the sale of products on credit in Rwanda and Uganda.
• The pandemic provides an opportunity for the industry to build trust by adopting an accommodative stance on claims and developing products that address the increased risk awareness of consumers.

APA

Schlemmer, L., Rinehart-Smit, K., & Gray, J. (2020). Never waste a crisis: How sub-Saharan African insurers are being affected by, and are responding to, COVID-19. FSD Africa. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Impact-of-COVID-19-on-insurers-10.07.201.pdf

Chicago

Schlemmer, Lucia, Kate Rinehart-Smit, and Jeremy Gray. Never waste a crisis: How sub-Saharan African insurers are being affected by, and are responding to, COVID-19. FSD Africa, 2020. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Impact-of-COVID-19-on-insurers-10.07.201.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Schlemmer |first1=Lucia |last2=Rinehart-Smit |first2=Kate |last3=Gray |first3=Jeremy |title=Never waste a crisis: How sub-Saharan African insurers are being affected by, and are responding to, COVID-19 |publisher=FSD Africa |date=July 2020 |url=https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Impact-of-COVID-19-on-insurers-10.07.201.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{schlemmer2020never, author = {Schlemmer, Lucia and Rinehart-Smit, Kate and Gray, Jeremy}, title = {{Never waste a crisis: How sub-Saharan African insurers are being affected by, and are responding to, COVID-19}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, year = {2020}, month = jul, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Impact-of-COVID-19-on-insurers-10.07.201.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }