The Minister for Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has tasked insurance companies in the West African sub-region to make good use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make insurance attractive.

Speaking on behalf of the sector minister at the opening ceremony of the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) Education Conference in Accra, Sampson Akligoh, Director of Financial Sector Division of the Ministry of Finance, emphasized the importance of aligning regulations with emerging technologies, particularly the rapid evolution of AI, which is changing the insurance industry.

“The first thing I believe we need is stronger regulations. We must make sure stronger regulations stand the best of international practice and capacity. The problems that we have is there for everybody to see. So stronger regulations is important”, he said.

Mr Akligoh added that insurance plays a critical role in reducing risk for lenders by providing financial protection against bad loans. He also pointed out that, many insurance companies do not focus on the credit market, despite its importance to their operations.

He therefore called for efforts to enhance the role of insurance in local and national economies in the coming decade.

On his part, the Acting Commissioner of Insurance, Michael Kofi Andoh noted that steps are being taken to establish a new framework for calculating insurance penetration in the country to reflect the true coverage of the rate.

Leveraging on technology to improve coverage and deepen penetration, he indicated that the commission is collecting data on Health and Pension schemes to complement its life and non-life insurance coverage.

“We need to gather data from the Pension and Health Insurance sector because we are measuring the penetration of the insurance. We also need to consolidate all those areas and measure the proper penetration rate. But we are still talking to stakeholders involved to get the data that we need for the calculation. Maybe by end of 2024, we should be able to see what the real penetration is like”

He also stressed the need to take seriously issues regarding climate change which is affecting insurance operations and sustainability in the industry across the sub regions.

According to him, climate change is another global issue that deserves a collective attention of WAICA.

The WAICA Education Conference brought personalities together from Anglophone West African sub-region. The countries were Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The theme for the conference was "Artificial intelligence and the Future of Insurance in the Sub Region".