Finsbury Reinsurance Limited has received its first credit rating, two years after being licensed in Zambia. The International Credit Rating Agency (ICRA) assigned the company an ‘A’ on the national scale and a ‘B’ on the international scale.
ICRA is a Dubai-headquartered rating firm with regional operations across Africa. It is approved by Zambia’s Pensions and Insurance Authority (PIA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to rate reinsurers in the country.
The rating covers Finsbury Re’s financial position, governance framework and ability to meet obligations to cedants and brokers. It does not carry the same global benchmark as ratings from S&P, Moody’s or AM Best, which remain the standard for international reinsurance counterparties.
Fitch Ratings has noted that ratings in the ‘BBB’ to ‘BB’ range are mostly assigned to smaller companies in emerging markets. Operating environment and sovereign-related risks are more pronounced in those markets, which shapes the rating outcome independent of a company’s own financial position.
Finsbury Re was incorporated in Zambia in July 2023 and licensed in 2024. The company said it now writes business across more than 60 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. It serves over 300 cedants and 90 brokers and is a subsidiary of Finsbury Investments Limited, a Lusaka-based conglomerate incorporated in 1981.
Webster Twaambo Jr, managing director and chief executive of Finsbury Re, said the rating affirms what the company has been building.
“It is a statement of credibility to our cedants and partners, and a platform from which we will continue to grow,” he said.
The African reinsurance market generated $6.269 billion in premiums in 2024, just 1.6% of global reinsurance underwriting. Insurance penetration remains thin across most of the continent.
Only South Africa at 11.54% and Namibia at 7.41% exceeded the global average of 6.8% that year. In a market with limited credibility infrastructure, a rated reinsurer has a material advantage over an unrated one in competing for cedant relationships.
This advantage matters because access to capital and cedants in Africa is not straightforward.
A structured survey of insurers, reinsurers and brokers conducted between March and April 2026 found every organisation rated high-quality data as critical to strategy. Yet the same survey described a market defined by insufficient data granularity, non-standardized definitions, and processing delays.
Mispricing was the most commonly cited consequence, followed by reduced underwriting appetite, and difficult access to reinsurance and capital markets.
Africa Re shows what the ratings trajectory looks like over time. In November 2025, S&P Global Ratings raised Africa Re’s long-term issuer credit and financial strength ratings to ‘A’, its first upgrade from the agency in 16 years.
The continent’s largest reinsurer posted gross written premium of $1.34 billion in 2025, up 10.18% year on year, with net profit after tax climbing 50.62% to $199 million. For Finsbury Re at two years old, that distance illustrates both the ambition and the work ahead.
ICRA’s Zambian operations are a subsidiary of ICRA Rating Tanzania. They are distinct from ICRA Limited India, which is affiliated with Moody’s. The two organisations share no common shareholders, management or employees, according to ICRA’s own published disclaimer.
