Africa Re 7th edition of Africa Insurance Awards to host in Nairobi, Kenya

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

African Reinsurance Corporation, Africa Re, will hold its 7th edition of the African Insurance Awards during the 48th African Insurance Organisation event in Nairobi, Kenya

The Awards organised by Africa Re holding on 28 June 2022, will celebrate excellent performance, innovation, leadership and best practices in the African insurance industry.

Award categories: Insurance Company of the Year: This prize is open to all insurance companies registered in Africa and focuses on performance in the last two years.

While the CEO of the Year, is special award is given to the CEO of an insurance company, who has made an outstanding contribution over the past 12 months or more, either through the advancement of his/her company or the insurance industry in Africa.

Innovation of the Year: This prize is awarded to an insurance company for the best use of technology, for launching a breakthrough product / service or a new and innovative distribution channel or method.

InsurTech of the Year: This prize targets non-insurers that are collaborating with insurers to improve customer service delivery, product development and overall innovation in the insurance value chain. For this category, the awards will provide a platform for the winner to meet the insurance industry.

The emerging winners will take home cash prizes, plaques and certificates

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

T,he Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has suspend its sitting to mark the 32nd Anniversary of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election in Nigeria.

The Fifth Legislature of the 2022 First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament is underway in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city and runs until the 2nd of July, 2022.

However, according to the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Ahmed Idris Wase, the Community Parliament would be observing the public holiday on Monday, 13th June to commemorate the Democracy Day in honour of the late presumed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 election, Moshood Abiola.

Wase, the Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives disclosed this on Saturday at the ongoing 2022 Parliamentary Session in Abuja.

He expressed the well wishes of the ECOWAS Parliament to the Government and good people of Nigeria as the nation celebrates the historic event.

In view of the foregoing, sitting at the Parliamentary Session resumes on Tuesday, June 14 with the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou expected to make apresentation.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government unveiled activities lined up for the celebration of this year’s Democracy Day (June 12), even as it declared Monday, June 13, a public holiday.

In compliance with the presidential directive, activities lined up for the celebration include a public lecture at the National Mosque, held on Friday, June 10, 2022, by 9:00 a.m. and Jumat prayers on the same date and at the same venue.

This will be followed by a Presidential broadcast on Sunday, June 12, by 7:00 a.m., and a church service at the National Christian Centre at 3:00 p.m.

Monday, June 13, will feature a Ceremonial Parade, which begins at 9:00 a.m., at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

 

CSOs launch coalition for whistleblowing in ECOWAS-member nations

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

A number of civil society organisations (CSOs) have formed a coalition to promote whistleblowing within ECOWAS-member nations aimed at combating corruption and achieving transparency and good governance.

The coalition—Whistleblowing Advocacy Coalition of West Africa (WACOWA)—was formed following a meeting organised by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) and civil society partners.

The consultative meeting was an exploratory discussion with the ECOWAS commission and the Network of Anti-corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA) on improving the fight against corruption in West Africa.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the CSOs said the coalition will complement the ECOWAS commission’s efforts in promoting whistleblowing as an accountability tool in member states.

It will collate reported cases to aid the work of anti-corruption agencies, seek new partners that will participate in the objectives of the advocacy and create solutions that will serve the needs of the communities,” the statement reads.

“Corruption has been one of the major challenges facing West African states since independence, and its pervasiveness in the subregion makes it seem intractable. Among the many damaging impacts of corruption over the decades are mass poverty, high-level unemployment, disregard for law and order, lack of trust in government and rising political instability resulting in the destruction of lives and property.

“Although most ECOWAS member states have passed anti-corruption laws, ratified international conventions against corruption and established special national anti-corruption institutions, a few others have yet to do so. Still, despite these efforts, tackling corruption in the region has not yielded the desired result

The integrity of government and level of corruption are rated more poorly in West and East Africa than in other regions on the continent, as pointed out by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in one of its reports issued in 2005. Even Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has over the years expressed similar sentiments by indicating that ECOWAS countries have excessively higher levels of corruption than countries in other regions.

“A key feature in the ECOWAS Commission’s protocol to combat corruption in the region is the ECOWAS Whistleblower Protection Strategy.The Commission identifies whistleblowing as one of the most direct methods of exposing corrupt acts which have the capacity to foster transparency and accountability in both the public and private sector administration. 

The key objective of this strategy is to encourage member states to pass whistleblowing legislations that are safe for making disclosure of wrongdoing and ensuring protection against retaliation because of such disclosure.”

The CSOs said they will promote whistleblowing as a conscious and required citizen action aimed at decreasing corruption and promoting development in their communities.

Signatories to the statement include African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Civic Media Lab, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Human and Environment Development Agenda (HEDA), MILID Foundation, OrderPaper.ng and Progressive Impact Organisation for Community Development (PRIMORG).

Others are Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action), Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP)
Tap iNitiative, Transparency International (TI) – Nigeria, and 21st Century Community for Youth Empowerment and Women Initiative

ADfB to invest €10 m CICA-Re

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) has signed an agreement to investthe 6.56-billion FCFA stake (approximately €10 million) in the Joint Reinsurance Company of Member States of Conférence Interafricaine des Marchés d’Assurances (CICA-Re)

Karim Diarassouba, chief executive officer of CICA-Re, signed on behalf of the company. African Development Bank Group Director of Financial Sector Development Stefan Nalletamby signed for the institution. The signing took place on 9 June under the auspices of the Ivorian Minister of Economy and Finance, Adama Coulibaly.

The African Development Bank Group’s Director of Financial Sector Development, Stefan Nalletamby said, “This operation is one of the African Development Bank’s strategic interventions to increase its contribution to the development of the African reinsurance sector through supporting strong African players like CICA-Re, which is capable of rising to international standards.”

Chief executive officer of CICA-Re, Karim Diarassouba said, “This partnership with the African Development Bank is intended to strengthen the company’s financial robustness and support the growth of the joint reinsurance company’s activities, while enriching its multisectoral experience.”

The investment is expected to strengthen the underwriting capacity of CICA-Re and contribute to the financing of its development and expansion across Africa. It will also bolster the company’s contribution to the development of domestic capital markets through the retention of a substantial share of locally generated reinsurance premiums.

The investment will also implement CICA-Re’s environmental and social policy, consolidate its governance and risk-management framework, grow its capacity to provide technical assistance in insurance and reinsurance, and support efforts to diversify its reinsurance products.

The investment aligns with the Bank’s strategic goal of deepening capital markets and promoting more-robust and better-integrated African financial institutions that offer more-diversified products to support the real sector. CICA-Re is the third regional reinsurance company in which the Bank has made an investment. The other two are African Reinsurance Corporation (Africa-Re), of which the Bank is a founding member, and PTA Reinsurance (ZEP-RE