Gallagher Re partners with Africa Re to tackle protection gap in Africa

Global reinsurance broker  Gallagher Re has teamed up with pan-African reinsurance group  Africa Re to address the protection gap across the continent.

The initiative, ‘Accelerating action through scalable risk transfer schemes’, aims to strengthen the financial resilience of African countries against a broad range of climate, crisis and disaster risks, particularly in the wake of a rapidly changing risk landscape.

Gallagher said it will offer a "robust, replicable, and modular framework" to address a wide range of threats and to protect both assets and liabilities. Consisting of a comprehensive toolkit of innovative analytics, regulatory and policy advice, and financial optimisation services, it will bring together public and private sectors to deliver customised, at-scale financial resilience solutions across Africa.

It will focus on existing resources and domestic capacity, complemented with third-party capital. Solutions developed would include risk transfer solutions to financing emergency response costs in the aftermath of a crisis, national insurance schemes for agriculture and crop, as well as weather derivatives and parametric products for public infrastructure, energy or tourism sectors.

Corneille Karekezi, Group MD & CEO of  Africa Re, said: “Africa is already bearing the brunt of climate change – and the threat of global, interconnected shocks further jeopardises hard-won development gains and livelihoods on the continent. In line with our 2022-2025 strategy, this ambitious initiative aims to leverage private sector and governments’ expertise and capabilities for improved resilience and financial protection. It will also contribute to re-positioning  Africa Re as the risk transformer of the African continent’s systemic risks. To achieve such strategic objective requires large-scale solutions and top-notch expertise, and we are extremely pleased to be teaming up with  Gallagher Re in that respect.”

Antoine Bavandi, global head of public sector, parametric & climate resilience solutions at  Gallagher Re, added: “We are thrilled to begin this journey with  Africa Re and its partners. We will be putting to work our expertise in various domains to come up with the most practical and cost-efficient solutions to various risks, exposures and country contexts. We look forward to laying out together the various building blocks of societal and financial resilience against drought, food insecurity and emerging risks in Africa with a deep sense of urgency.”

Natalie Van de Coolwijk, regional director, Middle East & Africa at  Gallagher Re, said: “Economic resilience is of critical importance to our continent, particularly in the wake of a rapidly changing risk landscape. It is important that this project is designed and driven by Africans for Africans, hence why  Africa Re is central to its success. They not only have a vested social interest, but also a fundamental understanding of the challenges facing the continent and its citizens. As their chosen partner, we are very proud of our involvement in this initiative aimed at bridging the protection gap and bringing together key stakeholders to achieve this.”

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