By Elliot WILLIAMS
Ghana’s recently appointed new Insurance Commissioner, Dr Abiba Zakariah, is again leaving her mark on the international insurance industry as the National Insurance Commission prepares to host the inaugural Africa Sustainable Insurance Summit in Accra during the first week of April.
A former Managing Director of Ghana Reinsurance Company and Deputy Managing Director of WAICA Re – the reinsurance company owned by Anglophone West Africa’s insurance industry – she is well versed in insurance at the international level and she is bringing this experience to bear on NIC’s status in Africa’s Pan continental insurance industry, attracting this key pan continental meeting to Accra within two months of her assuming office as the chief executive of the NIC.
NIC is hosting the event in partnership with the Secretariat of the Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance (NDSI) which itself is the brain child of Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Africa, an international organization dedicated to promoting financial inclusion.
The Summit will take place from Wednesday, April 2 to Friday, April 4 at the Movenpick Hotel. The theme is “Building a new sustainability culture for Africa’s insurance markets.”
The impending pan-continental Summit – the first of its kind – will serve as a premier platform for meaningful engagement, knowledge sharing and networking within the African insurance industry. Featuring keynote addresses, expert panel discussions and interactive sessions, the summit will delve into critical topics related to sustainable insurance practices.
The Summit will begin on April 2 with a Leadership Group, Steering Committee and Working Group Members meeting, followed by a welcome cocktail for participants.
On April 3, participants will be welcomed by Dr Zakariah, before Phillip Lopokoyit, Chairman of the NDSI, and CEO of ICEA Lion makes his opening remarks. This will be followed by a keynote address by Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, Ghana’s Minister of Finance.
Next will be a panel discussion on the topic: State of Sustainable Insurance; Global and Africa Perspectives. It will comprise seven expert panelists, all of them CEOs, and will be moderated by Kelvin Massingham, of the NDSI Leadership Group and Director, Adoption and Resilience at FSD Africa.
This will be followed by a “lightening talk” on sustainable insurance impact, and then two breakout sessions. One will be on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) principles Roadmap Development, addressed by Impact Actuarial and FSD Africa; while the other will be on ESG reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards, moderated by Mia Thom of the NDSI Steering Committee.
After another “lightening talk” – again on sustainable insurance impact, NDSI members will have a side event which will comprise a product presentation.
That evening participants will attend a gala dinner.
On the third and final day, April 4, there will be a panel session on sustainable investments comprising five panelists moderated by Zilah Malia, senior manager for climate finance at FSD Africa.
Next will be breakout panel sessions: One on ESG Taxonomy for Africa; another on ESG Taxonomy discussions specific to Ghana, led by the NIC and the Bank of Ghana.; and a third on innovation for sustainable insurance moderated by Elias Omondi, Principal for Innovation for Resilience at FSD Africa
Further breakout panel sessions for the day will address: underwriting against agricultural and disaster risk, moderated by Iara De Souza, a member of NDSI’s Steering Committee; and underwriting renewable energy risks moderated by Rose Wanda, also a member of NDSI’s Steering Committee.
Another lightening talk will follow on Insuretech and finally more NDSI member side event presentation will be made on WAICA Re’s shared economic value principle and also on integrating global framework in sustainable insurance.
The Summit will conclude with a closing dinner.
Altogether more than 200 participants are being expected, from across Africa and from the other continents of the world.
