Staff Writer
Insurance regulators and industry players must place sustainability, consumer confidence and inclusive access at the centre of efforts to build resilient insurance markets as technological, geopolitical and climate-related risks intensify, Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) Commissioner Dr Grace Muradzikwa has said.
Muradzikwa said the long-term sustainability of the insurance sector would depend not only on financially sound institutions and technological innovation, but also on the industry’s ability to maintain public trust and deliver tangible value to policyholders.
Addressing the 24th annual conference of the African Insurance Organisation’s Insurance Regulators and Development Committee (AIRDC) in Harare, Muradzikwa said resilience should be viewed more broadly than maintaining adequate capital and solvency levels.
“Resilience and confidence must go together. We can build financially sound institutions. We can deploy sophisticated technologies. We can design innovative products. But the long-term sustainability of insurance ultimately depends on whether the people we serve trust the promise that insurance represents,” she said.
The Commissioner said regulators therefore had a responsibility to ensure that policyholders were treated fairly, products were appropriate, information was transparent and legitimate claims were settled promptly.
She also challenged insurers to ensure that technological advances translate into meaningful improvements for consumers rather than innovation for its own sake.
“If technological advancement does not make insurance more accessible, affordable, responsive and understandable to the ordinary person, then we must ask ourselves whether we are innovating in the areas that matter most,” Muradzikwa said.
Her remarks come as insurance markets across developing economies face mounting pressure from climate change, cybercrime, artificial intelligence, digital disruption and wider geopolitical and economic instability.
The issues are central to this year’s AIRDC conference, held under the theme, “Insurance Resilience in the Face of Geopolitical and Technological Disruption for Developing Markets.”
Muradzikwa said the risks facing developing insurance markets were increasingly interconnected, making collaboration among regulators and industry players critical.
She said the sector needed to find practical ways of deepening insurance penetration and extending protection to individuals and businesses that remain outside the formal insurance system.
“How do we deepen insurance markets? How do we reach those who remain outside the formal insurance system? How do we strengthen public confidence in insurance?” she asked.
She said developing markets must also strike a balance between innovation and consumer protection as insurers increasingly adopt digital platforms, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
“For industry, innovation must ultimately translate into value for the customer,” she said.
Muradzikwa said the sustainability of insurance markets should therefore be measured not only through financial indicators, but also by their inclusiveness, transparency and ability to respond to the needs of policyholders.
“Our collective challenge is therefore to build markets that are not only resilient, but also inclusive and trusted,” she said.
Zimbabwe’s hosting of the conference also provides an opportunity for the local insurance industry to strengthen relationships with regulators and market participants from other developing economies.
Muradzikwa noted that Zimbabwe had previously hosted the AIRDC conference in Victoria Falls in 2013 and currently holds the vice presidency of the organisation.
She said the conference should result in more than presentations, urging delegates to exchange experiences, identify practical solutions and establish partnerships that could strengthen insurance markets beyond the event.
“The true measure of this Conference will not be the number of presentations delivered, but the relationships strengthened, ideas generated and practical initiatives that emerge from our deliberations,” she said.
