Congo Grants Private Insurers Licenses to End State Monopoly

KINSHASA (Capital Markets in  Africa) – The Democratic Republic of Congo granted licenses to six insurance companies to begin operating, ending more than four decades of state monopoly of the industry.

Permits are being granted to firms including units of Rawbank Sarl, the nation’s biggest lender, and France’s Gras Savoye & Cie, Alain Kaninda, director-general of the Insurance Regulatory Authority, told reporters Thursday in the capital, Kinshasa. Four insurance providers and two brokerages were authorized to start operating, he said.

 “A new era is opening for a more dynamic and inclusive insurance sector which contributes effectively to the socioeconomic development of the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Kaninda said.

Applications by other companies seeking to enter Congo’s largely untapped insurance market are still under consideration. State-owned Societe National d’Assurances, which has dominated the sector since 1967, is awaiting the processing of its license application but is being allowed to “continue to operate because it has a portfolio of clients,” Kaninda said.

Companies controlled by Rawbank secured two licences to sell life and non-life insurance products, while Cameroon-based Activa Assurance SA also obtained permission. Other than Gras Savoye RDC, the other brokerage authorized to operate is a unit of Allied Insurance Brokers, a closely held business also present in Angola, Tanzania and Mozambique.

Source: Bloomberg Business News