Unlocking ‘complex’ Africa pivotal to Guy Carp’s EMEA plans
Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter is set to expand its operations in Africa, Nick Frankland, CEO of the firm’s EMEA operations, said at a press conference in Monte Carlo.
He said that the Sub-Saharan African reinsurance market is “finally arising from social and political instability” due to substantial foreign investment, which has led to increased employment and wider economic benefits in the region.
According to Frankland, Africa is experiencing 5 percent growth in its gross domestic product (GDP) growth overall but some Central African countries are enjoying considerably higher growth rates. Kenya is forecast to achieve 6.5 percent GDP growth by 2017, Tanzania 7.1 percent and Ghana 7.8 percent.
He said Guy Carpenter is building an infrastructure from the firm’s current base in Johannesburg, partly through joint venture arrangements with parent company Marsh.
“We see unlocking the potential of this vast and complex continent as vital to our long-term territorial growth ambitions,” said Frankland.
He said it has been a testing period for the EMEA region as a whole thanks to numerous social and political challenges and wars.
“On a social and political level, continued terrorism and civil war have led to large-scale migration from the afflicted regions to the shores of the more prosperous Europe—itself afflicted by large fiscal imbalances and threats to its financial and political cohesion,” said Frankland.
The executive said this had “undoubtedly” had an impact on GDP growth and insurance penetration across many of the EMEA region’s countries and that Guy Carpenter is taking steps to combat this by harnessing technology and increasing innovation, as well as heightening its focus on the African reinsurance sector.
