Reinsurance is often more commonly known as ‘insurance for insurance companies’. A vital second layer of protection, it drastically reduces the risk for major insurers of suffering dangerously high losses as a consequence of payments for large claims and is becoming an increasingly essential tool used by insurance companies to manage risks.

Between 2011 and 2020, sub-Saharan, national, regional and international reinsurers achieved an average annual growth in gross written premiums of 9.15%. Despite a challenging operating environment in 2020 marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, volatile oil prices, high inflation and depreciation of local currencies, the growth potential of reinsurance in sub-Saharan Africa is widely acknowledged as being extremely strong.

Even in such a constraining context, the region is blessed with abundant natural resources and strongly growing economic indicators, alongside a young and dynamic population offering strong insurance growth potential. A rise in infrastructure investment in recent years has also been a sizeable contributing factor in the overall development of the local reinsurance market, expected to continue as sustained economic growth and a general tightening of reinsurance rates supports further improvement.

REFOCUSING, REINFORCING AND REVOLVING

“GrandRe is a top-performing player in the reinsurance business in Zimbabwe,” proudly affirms Masawara – formerly TA Holdings – the African investment holding company specialising in companies with a unique position in growth industry value chains. Beginning life in 2005 as a local reinsurance solutions provider designed to cover all short-term business in Zimbabwe, Grand Re now boasts expertise across agriculture, engineering, fire, liabilities, and motor – even some specialist fields such as marine and aviation.

“We provide sound reinsurance and financial services to Zimbabwe and the entire African insurance market,” Grand Re summarises. “Over the years we have shown excellent service in the markets we serve; our reassurance to our clients is that we have the same commitment to excellence as they do and the resources to back it up.

“At Grand Re we are refocusing, reinforcing and revolving the risk transfer mechanisms, with confidence in our capability.”

Grand Re’s success and growth has taken it way beyond its Zimbabwe origins, MD Tatenda Katoma described in conversation with Enterprise Africa, seeing the company establish a footprint well on its way to covering the entire African continent. “Our original expansion into the rest of Africa was in the form of our Botswana office, for which we received our full license in 2020 and which is now fully operational and growing at a tremendous pace,” he explained. More recently Grand Re has opened a fully-fledged office in Tanzania, while last March the company commenced operations in Douala, Cameroon.

“Overall, from a strategic point of view the company has moved from being a locally-operating outfit focusing on Zimbabwe to become the original Pan-African player,” Katoma condensed. “We have broadened our ambitions now to establish ourselves firmly on the African continent, targeting in particular the Southern East African side and working our way into the rest of Africa.”

SECURE AND RELIABLE

In dealings near and far, with clients both longstanding and new, it is an unwavering commitment to quality and dependability that governs Grand Re’s steady march across Africa, the company makes clear. “We exist to provide the retail insurance market with secure and reliable reinsurance capacity, and be a responsive partner in the provision of comprehensive risk management solutions,” states Grand Re.

“We always acknowledge that our clients are unique, as are the risks to which they are exposed. That is why we tailor all of our products to adequately cover each client’s risk, in a dynamic world in which new and complex challenges and risks are emerging every day. Companies increasingly need a strong partner to help reduce their risks, cover them against losses and safeguard their financial security.”

Grand Re is uniquely positioned to intervene in this regard, Katoma stressed, whether through short-term reinsurance, risk management, actuarial consultancy or training. “At GrandRe our promise is to give the best risk management solutions to our clients to help them carry on with their day to day and long-term operations,” he said, “with the confidence that their risk is well balanced with assured confidence.

“We are constantly working on improving our technical expertise so that we serve our clients better, while our team is composed of highly qualified and experienced people who have the capacity to deliver technical training. We also tap into the Group’s skills resources comprising a panel of experts who have vast exposure to regional and international markets.”

A presence in more and more territories allows Grand Re to ensure that it is able to give access to good quality insurance products to more and more key clients across the African region, Katoma concluded, with sights very much set on further honing its capabilities in a net cast ever-wider. “Currently, there are a lot of classes of more specialist insurance where people are failing to find cover, and Grand Re intends to create tailor-made products for each region to ensure that our clients are able to secure the capacity that is much needed in these areas,” he enthused.

“We look forward now to growing together with all of the new clientele that comes along with all these new strategic developments, and building ourselves up to be the reinsurer of choice across sub-Saharan Africa.”