The Senegalese insurance market is doing well, becoming the second largest market in the CIMA zone with premiums of nearly FCFA300bn ($538m). Senegal ranks behind Cote d'Ivoire.
Mr Mouhamadou Moustapha Fall, Director General of the National Agricultural Insurance Company of Senegal (CNAS), said this, adding that a few years ago, Senegal was behind Cameroon and Gabon as well. “This shows that we are on the right track.” He was speaking at the Regional Seminar of the Association of Insurance Controllers (AICA), according to a report by Enquete Plus.
Mr Fall also said, “In the field of agricultural insurance, Senegal is ahead. There is a dedicated national company with coverage for more than 800,000 producers out of a population of 4m. Senegal is Number One in sub-Saharan Africa.”
The Coordinator of the Directorate General of the Financial Sector, Mr Ange Mancabou, believes the insurance sector's contribution is essential in managing exposure to climate risks by providing suitable and affordable coverage. He cited the example of CNAS, which has adopted parametric insurance with payouts based on weather indices.
The results of adopting parametric insurance are quite satisfactory, with over 840,000 subscriptions, a turnover of over FCFA2bn, and claims paid estimated at FCFA1.5bn.“
CIMA, or the Inter-African Conference on Insurance Markets, is a regulatory body for the regional insurance market formed by 14 mainly Francophone countries, namely, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.