Insurance, Insurtech and Wider Fintech Partnerships in the Middle East & Africa

Insurance, Insurtech and Wider Fintech Partnerships in the Middle East & Africa

Home to over 1.7 billion people, the MEA region represents a significant population. However, in terms of insurance, much of the region is still uninsured. According to Atlas , the insurance premiums market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) stood at $57 billion in 2018. For example, in the affluent Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC ) region, according to research from management consulting firm Kearney , it is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets, which registered growth of nearly 7 per cent each year in gross written premiums over the previous few years. The GCC countries collectively (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman) in the MENA region accounted for less than half (44.3 per cent) of the region’s premium market share. As highlighted in previous writings as well as the Fintech Times’s Fintech Middle East and Africa 2021 Report , much of the Middle East as a whole still is insured, in particular with less affluent regions specifically beyond the GCC region . In Africa, the rate of uninsured is even lower. For instance, countries such as Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million people and being the largest country in the