Dr. Abiba Zakariah has been appointed as the new acting Commissioner of Insurance at the National Insurance Commission, the regulator of the insurance industry.
President John Dramani Mahama made her appointment, which took effect from Monday, February 17.
She replaces Michael Kofi Andoh who had been the acting CEO of the NIC since April 2023, having been appointed to that position by outgone President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Dr. Zakariah has over two decades experience in the insurance industry. She is a Chartered Insurer and a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute of the United Kingdom and the Institute of Risk Management Professionals of Ghana.
She holds a Bachelors degree and an MBA from the University of Ghana, Legon as well as a PhD in Management Studies from the Swiss Management Centre.
Dr. Zakariah started her career at SIC Insurance Company, known at that time as State Insurance Corporation.
She rose through a sterling professional career in the industry to become Chief Operating Officer of WAICA Re Corporation, a position she resigned from in 2024.
WAICA Re is owned by the members of the West African Insurance Companies Association, and has offices all over the world.
She is also the founder and Managing Director of a management-consulting firm, Strategic Consortium.
Dr Zakariah has taken over as Ghana’s Commissioner of Insurance at a watershed time for the country’s insurance industry.
One issue she will have to address is the clamour for another review of the minimum capital requirements for various genres of insurance industry operators.
The industry’s minimum capital requirements were increased several fold a few years ago but the sharp depreciation of the cedi since then has largely eroded the increased financial muscle conferred by that move.
She is expected to push for some new initiatives to address issues such as pricing of policies, legal compliance to insurance obligations and the expansion of Ghana’s still inordinately low insurance penetration rate.
