Poor data infrastructure is holding back insurance market development across Africa just as much as a lack of capital, a new industry report has found. The African Insurance Organisation’s (AIO) Africa Insurance Pulse 2026 sets out the case for treating data scarcity as a structural problem in its own right.
Where risks cannot be reliably measured, insurance markets cannot price adequately or scale sustainably. Households and enterprises across Africa remain exposed to shocks that could erase years of economic progress.
The numbers frame the challenge starkly. The African reinsurance market generated $6.269 billion in premiums in 2024, just 1.6% of global reinsurance underwriting. Only South Africa and Namibia recorded insurance penetration above the global average of 6.8% that year.
At the primary insurance level, the picture is similarly thin. Non-life penetration across the continent remains well below global benchmarks. Even South Africa, the most developed market, records non-life penetration of only 2.3% of GDP against a 4% global average.
Without credible and granular data, actuarial modelling becomes unreliable and technical pricing requires high safety margins. Reinsurance costs rise as a result, making protection either unavailable or unaffordable for those who need it most.
Jean Baptiste Ntukamazina, secretary general of the AIO, said insurers cannot price risk accurately or reach underserved populations without better data systems and shared standards.
“The stakes extend well beyond the industry itself: data-driven insurance is part of the economic infrastructure that improves resilience and enables inclusive growth,” he said.
The report identifies mobile money as an underappreciated data asset. Across low-income African markets, mobile financial ecosystems have reached close to half the adult population in several countries, far outstripping traditional banking. Where insurers have integrated into these platforms, previously uninsurable populations have been reached at scale.
Capital is beginning to follow this opportunity. Africa Specialty Risks secured a new lead investor in June 2026 and is forecast to write approximately $0.5 billion in gross written premiums this year. The firm also launched an automated underwriting platform in 2025 to extend its reach into standardised risks across the continent.
A structured survey of insurers, reinsurers, and brokers, conducted between March and April 2026, underpins the report’s findings. Every organisation surveyed rated high-quality data as critical to strategy, yet described a market defined by insufficient granularity, processing delays, and non-standardised definitions.
Mispricing was the most commonly cited consequence, followed by reduced underwriting appetite and difficult access to reinsurance and capital markets.
Africa’s data gap sits within a challenging global backdrop. Swiss Re’s latest data puts the global natural catastrophe protection gap at US$424 billion in 2025. The resilience index – the share of protection needs covered by insurance – has barely shifted over the past decade, standing at just 27.3%.
