Continental Reinsurance Celebrates 30 Year Anniversary
It was a glamorous night at the Victoria Crown Plaza Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos as past and present employees, friends, associates and well wishers of Continental Reinsurance celebrated 30 years of proudly serving Africa. Addressing the gathered guests, Dr Femi Oyetunji, Group Managing Director/CEO, spoke on the journey so far:
“Thirty years ago, Continental Reinsurance was established to meet the growing needs of those doing insurance business in Africa. In that time, we have seen some massive changes and, sadly, some things that have hardly changed. Democracies have merged and trading blocs formed, but political risk remains a very constant challenge while our place in the world has not really evolved as it should have done.
However, I am an optimistic man and I can see there are plenty of opportunities. The pace of change the world overlooks set to produce a real chance for Africa to lead in so many ways. That was proved by the success of m-pesa in Kenya. But there is more to come – of that I am convinced. Africa can leapfrog some of the legacy issues of more developed regions and bring huge change to the socially disadvantaged of today.
Climate change, for example, may be considered a negative for many but, by using insurance we can maximize the opportunity for Africa to become the bread basket of the world. Wider financial inclusion may be an ambitious goal, but why not have ambitions? Again, I truly believe insurance can play a massive part in bringing millions of people into the financial system.
However, to do that, insurance must adapt and remain relevant to all the social changes around it. increased digitalization and new technologies will bring massive social change and quite probably, a new way of working for all. Insurance will be needed but we may need to evidence that in new ways.
For all of us, we need to work together to create a nimble and adaptable insurance industry that is fit for purpose for the next 30 years and beyond.”
