DRC liberalises insurance sector

After 50 years of state monopoly, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has liberalised its insurance sector.

The country now has three licensed non-life insurers, one life insurer, and two insurance brokers.

Rupert Weterings, of AIB Brokers, one of the brokers to win a licence, said: “We do expect that SONAS (the state insurer) will get its licence in the coming weeks.”

He explained that the DRC insurance regulator (ARCA) began operating in 2014 and since then, there has been continual talk of the market being liberalised.

Discussing why it is happening now, Mr Weterings said: “The new President is looking to restart the DRC economy and [the] total lack of an insurance sector has been hindering this.”

The DRC regulations require that all insurance is conducted through a local insurer and ARCA can provide dispensation for that.

Article 286 of the rules also stipulates that a maximum of 75% of reinsurance can be ceded abroad.

“As a result,” said Mr Weterings, “we understand that the current process means that we need to exhaust local capacity prior to pursuing a fronting option.

“Please note that Article 286 will only incept when local insurers are fully operational – at this stage they are only fronting.”