Report Microinsurance Conference 2006 Making Insurance Work for Africa
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Report Microinsurance Conference 2006 A1 Report Microinsurance Conference 2006 Making insurance work for Africa Cape Town, South Africa Edited by 21– 23 November 2006 Dirk Reinhard and Zahid Qureshi Contents Acknowledgements 1 Opening address This report is a summary of the There were a lot of people working Microinsurance Conference 2006 behind the scenes. Prior to and 2 Introduction by the organisers held in Cape Town, South Africa, during the event, the conference 4 Launch of the new book jointly hosted by the CAGP team Angelika Boos, Petra Hinter- Working Group on Microinsurance amskogler, Ursula Forstner and 5 Agenda: Day 1/1 and the Munich Re Foundation Markus Heigl provided significant 6 Panel 1 with the support of FinMark Trust. organisational support and What is insurance for The conference would not have worked with a lot of passion to the low-income market? been possible without the con- make this a successful event. Last tributions, time and efforts of the but not least, we would like to 8 Panel 2 38 speakers. Thanks to their input, thank the team of rapporteurs led Institutional options we had a broad range and variety by Zahid Qureshi – Marco Ger- 11 Agenda: Day 1/2 of experience and important les- hardt, Ailsa Holloway, Leigh Sonn, sons to share. Their feedback on Koko Warner and Gina Ziervogel – 12 Parallel sessions the conference report after the for helping us gather and docu- Case studies event was also very much appre- ment all the important lessons 21 Panel 3 ciated. learned from the various sessions, Challenges and strategies to extend which can be found in this report. This event was aimed at discussing health insurance to the poor in Africa current practices as well as future 23 Agenda: Day 2/1 concepts for microinsurance. It Craig Churchill provided a platform enabling the 24 Panel 4 Dirk Reinhard exchange of ideas and solutions Commercialising insurance for for the many problems to be the low-income market: Role of solved. Without the input from regulators, policy makers and the participants, however, it insurance/reinsurance companies would have remained an empty 26 Parallel sessions space. We would therefore like Thematic working groups to acknowledge the over 150 par- ticipating experts representing 29 Agenda: Day 2/2 80 organisations from 30 different 30 Parallel sessions countries around the world. Thematic working groups On behalf of the organisers, we 34 Panel 5 would like to thank the people Beyond life and health: actively involved in shaping the Microinsurance innovations conference, identifying suitable speakers, and structuring the 36 Participating organisations workshops: Véronique Faber, 37 Acronyms Brigitte Klein, Jeremy Leach, Thomas Loster, Michael McCord and Gaby Ramm. We would also like to thank Andreas Kleiner and George Allen from Munich Re of Africa for their guidance on key players in the market, and for helping us find such a great con- ference venue. Report Microinsurance Conference 2006 1 Opening address Access to financial services clearly To address the transaction costs of matters. Whether the providers are dealing with low-income households, formal or informal, poor households transactional banking services are are active users of financial services essential so that premiums can be and yet their choices are often sub- collected and claims paid. However, optimal, costly and high-risk. Further, ATM densities in Africa are extremely research has shown that access to low. For example, Tanzania has one financial services is a social and polit- ATM per 600,000 people compared ical priority – in that exclusion can with over 100 for the same number of create social instability – and an people in Brazil. On the other hand, economic priority, with greater finan- technology could play a unique role, cial sector development stimulating given that the use of mobile tele- Jeremy Leach increased economic growth. phones is high. In Botswana for ex- FinMark Trust, ample, 43% have access to a mobile However, research also shows South Africa phone, including 36% of the un- that the financial sector in Africa is banked. In the wake of what may the smallest in the world, which is be a new mobile phone banking a problem in terms of economies of wave, townships have many airtime scale, infrastructure and efficiency. vendors, and airtime is becoming Further, the roll-out of the FinScope accepted as a currency, pointing Africa surveys demonstrates that to the potential of using technology the lower-income market has little to increase access. access to formal financial services for the management of risks, restricting The new technology, which holds them to informal mechanisms. the key to cutting transaction costs, finally appears to have reached a Nevertheless, it is not all bad. Global critical mass, being user-friendly and studies show that life and non-life accessible, but it requires micro- insurance are growing at a good rate insurers to change the supply land- in emerging economies, including scape and address customer-adop- Africa. With surveys such as tion issues. A majority of consumers FinScope and Financial Diaries are prepared to use technology (65%) demonstrating the high propensity but still prefer to deal with someone for poor households to actively face to face (56%). manage their finances, the challenge will now be to ensure that the Coupled with technology and the role coverage reaches deep into the low- of branchless banking – along the income market and meets the real lines of the Brazilian model – is a Among the poor in Africa, use of risks. For example, the Financial notable supervisory and regulatory mobile phones is high, and airtime Diaries project in South Africa showed issue. While policy makers become is being accepted as currency. how poor households manage risks. more activist, interventions often The question is whether insurers 55% of one poor household’s income have unintended consequences, could use it to collect premiums. was placed into formal and informal restraining access. More appropriate Regulation lacks enforcement. savings and insurance products. tools to improve the enabling envir- Policy makers need to harmonise This example, one of many, certainly onment are necessary. Further, regu- approaches and facilitate the points to the potential size of the lators will need to consider a regional growth of regional players. market and how poor households approach, with cross-border assess- already manage risk. ment of interventions and harmoni- sation to facilitate the growth of In understanding the market, it is regional players. crucial to understand whether the real risks are being covered. FinScope Whilst improving access is chal- surveys again show that many of lenging, a greater use of technology, the real riIsks that people face are proactive supervisory involvement, insurable events, but go uncovered. and greater information on the risks While insurance companies tend and needs of consumers are starting to believe that the access frontiers to create the right conditions to in- are the unbanked and non-payroll crease access. customers, FinScope showed that in addition to the current 6% of South Africans who have household contents insurance, there are 29% within fairly easy reach. Beyond that, the challenges are trickier. Report Microinsurance Conference 2006 2 Introduction by the organisers Craig Churchill According to recent research from the The conference was the second spon- ILO, Switzerland MicroInsurance Centre, fewer than sored by the Munich Re Foundation Chair, CGAP Working Group 3% of poor people in the poorest 100 in cooperation with the CGAP (Con- on Microinsurance countries have formal insurance of sultative Group to Assist the Poor) some sort. Poor households are es- Dirk Reinhard Working Group on Microinsurance. Vice-Chairman, pecially vulnerable to risk, both in the It was held with the support of the Munich Re Foundation form of natural disasters as well as South Africa-based FinMark Trust, and more regular occurrences, such as enabled microinsurance experts from illness and accidents. Recently pub- Europe, North America, Asia and lished reports on climate change show Latin America to share their views. that the situation is getting worse. The first conference, held in Munich Microinsurance is an important in October 2005, brought together tool to reduce risks for people with a hundred specialists from around the low incomes, but there are great world to look closely at some 20 challenges as well as opportunities. “good and bad practice” case studies Can we – governments, donors and conducted by the Working Group as regulators, as well as insurers, rein- well as technical and operational surers, and finance and development issues in microinsurance. organisations – together find the will The second conference featured and means to effectively serve this the launch of the book “Protecting sizeable market? the poor – A microinsurance That was the focus as 150 experts compendium.” This 650-page book and practitioners from 30 countries synthesises lessons drawn from the representing 80 entities gathered in case studies and experiences of Cape Town on 21–23 November for microinsurance pioneers around the the Microinsurance Conference 2006: world – analysed by 38 authors, Making insurance work for Africa. including academics and insurance and development professionals. The findings reveal that “microinsur- ance is indeed viable, and even prof- itable under some circumstances, but a number of difficulties must be over- come for it to