The insurance penetration rate in Ghana will hover around 1.0% in 2024, Deloitte has revealed in its Africa Insurance Outlook 2024.

However, insurance penetration remains relatively untapped.

“Apart from South Africa, where the insurance penetration rate is at 11.54%, the leading professional services firm said the rest of the African continent remains relatively untapped”, it said.

Africa has been attracting several innovative start-up insurance companies aiming to bridge the insurance gap. These start-ups have leveraged mobile technologies to provide microinsurance solutions to underserved and previously unreachable customers.

They offer affordable, sometimes instant, and accessible insurance coverage, including life, health, and crop insurance, reaching millions of previously uninsured individuals.

Examples of start-ups include Turaco, a Kenyan insurtech, with additional operations in Uganda and Nigeria.

Similarly, BIMA, a micro-insurance company servicing low-income customers in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania, leverages mobile technology to offer affordable health, life, and personal accident insurance cover to over 30 million customers. It has partnered with mobile money providers, mobile networks providers, and insurance underwriters.

Deloitte pointed out that the African insurance market still offers immense opportunities for insurance players, fuelled by the emergence of insurtech and fintech start-ups and coupled with strong population growth and low insurance penetration levels.

It added that although the COVID-19 pandemic may have delayed the anticipated boom in the African insurance market, it has also highlighted the industry’s resilience and potential for growth.