From Right… Faith Batamuriza, Director Of Insurance and Pensions, National Bank of Rwanda, Dr. Protazio Sande, Ag. CEO, IRA Uganda and Interim Chair, EAISA, Godfrey Kiptum, Commissioner Of Insurance and CEO, IRA Kenya, Baghayo Saqware, Commissioner of Insurance and CEO, TIRA, Tanzania, Alain Kaninda, Managing Director, ARCA, DRC, Desire Nimubona, Director, Legal Affairs, ARCA, Burundi
NAIROBI — East African insurance regulators say rules restricting foreign ownership of insurers will remain a national matter for now, though they could ease as regional integration advances.
They spoke at a press briefing in Nairobi at the close of a two-day meeting of the East African Insurance Supervisors Association the regulators saying each partner state continues to set its own shareholding requirements.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Kenyan Insurance Regulator, the Insurance Regulatory Authority, Godfrey Kiptum, currently, each country has different rules and regulations and laws that govern insurance practices.
“We acknowledge that in East Africa we have local shareholding requirements, and that is also very important so that each country feels part of that process,” he said.
Investors from within the East African Community already face no such limits.
“I know in Kenya we have restrictions, but for members of East Africa it’s open. You can invest up to 100 per cent shareholding in an insurance company,” he said.
“Kenya has restrictions for non-members of the EAC. But I do know that as we move forward, those will open up, possibly in the coming days.”
Tanzania’s Commissioner of Insurance, Dr Baghayo Saqware, said local ownership remains central to keeping the benefits of the insurance sector within the region.
“In order to get the full benefit of our economy, we need to have local participation. Local participation means local ownership,” Saqware said.
“If you are to retain the economy in the East African Community, you need to have people owning that sector.”
He added that regulators want local companies to raise more capital so they can underwrite large risks in sectors such as mining and oil and gas.
The comments come after a period of consolidation involving foreign insurers.
Allianz, a major global financial services company and one of the world’s largest insurers and asset managers, entered the East African market in 2020, buying 51 to 66 per cent stakes in East Africa’s largest insurer, Jubilee Holdings’ general insurance units for KSh10.8 billion.
Allianz and South Africa’s Sanlam later launched SanlamAllianz in September 2023, a joint venture held 60 per cent by Sanlam and 40 per cent by Allianz. Jubilee has since sold its remaining minority stakes in those businesses to SanlamAllianz Africa.
Separately, the Competition Authority of Kenya in April 2025 approved the acquisition of 65 per cent of Takaful Insurance of Africa by Djibouti-based Tamini Insurance S.A.
Six resolutions
EAISA chairman Protazio Sande, who is also Acting Chief Executive of Uganda’s Insurance Regulatory Authority, said the regulators had adopted six resolutions aimed at harmonising supervision across the region.
They include a common template for assessing compliance with the 25 international insurance core principles, a regional integrated supervisory software, a unified constitution to replace the memorandum of understanding that currently governs the association, a governance framework, a standardised complaints management framework, and a harmonised approach to digital transformation.
“We need to be enabled by a software,” Sande said. “As regional supervisors, we compare and exchange information to support our supervisory decisions.”
On complaints, he said policyholders should expect the same standard of service across the region.
“Insurance is a business of trust,” he said. “If you have insurance in Kenya, the expectation should be the same as when you buy insurance in Tanzania or Burundi or Rwanda or Uganda.”
Sande said the association expects significant progress on all six resolutions within a year, with the constitution likely to take longest because partner states follow different legal procedures.
“Some of us have actually already concluded, but others are still having a lot of steps to cover,” he said.
Regional pool for climate risk
Sande said regulators are also exploring a regional pool to cover catastrophic climate events, following a separate two-day forum on climate disaster risk financing attended by about 20 countries.
“When you talk of an El Niño of that magnitude, not one company, not one market may absorb that risk appropriately,” he said. “The discussion was revolving around, can we create a pool so that we insure such catastrophic events or risks as a pool, as opposed to individual markets or individual companies?”
He said the discussions are ongoing.
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Capacity for large risks
On whether the region can underwrite large risks in extractive industries, Sande said regulators have moved from minimum capital requirements to risk-based capital, under which insurers must hold capital against each risk they write.
“If you are to go for a big risk and you do not have the capital, you have to go back to your shareholders and ask for more money,” he said.
He acknowledged that much of the region’s large risks are passed on to international reinsurers.
“It is possible for a risk to be underwritten in Kenya and maybe three per cent retained, with 97 per cent offloaded into the international market,” he said, adding that local insurers still earn commission on the business they cede.
“As regulators, we are here to tell you that yes, indeed, we have the capacity,” Sande said. “Where we are not able to absorb a certain percentage of risk, then there is a world market which is too huge to be exhausted.”
He closed with the association’s message to the public: “If it is not insurable, then it is not investable.”