Gambia insurance industry receives a leg up in reinsurance business

The main private reinsurance company in Ghana has just cemented a strong bond of cooperation and service delivery in reinsurance with Gambia insurance companies, in which insurance entities in The Gambia would have the outlet of ceding business to the Ghana concern. 

Mainstream Reinsurance Company Limited of Ghana therefore held a two-day seminar for Gambia insurance entities to strengthen and reinforce their relationship, on 5 September 2010 at the Laico
Atlantic Hotel in Banjul.

“This seminar is to build on the existing relation between Mainstream Reinsurance Company and the Gambia insurance market,” said Dr Kwame Adom Frimpong, managing director of Mainstream Reinsurance Company, who is the head of the Ghanaian delegation to The Gambia.  “So the meeting is to reinforce and strengthen the relationship on cordial basis and I am sure after this seminar the good ties between the insurance companies in The Gambia and Mainstream Reinsurance Company will widen.”

The Gambia insurance market is said to be among the biggest contributors, by way of ceding business to Mainstream Reinsurance Company since its inception.  

Dr Frimpong, MD Mainstream Reinsurance

“We have been dealing with the Gambia insurance companies for a long time and now is time to pay back the benefits we have got from you [the Gambia insurance industry],” Dr Frimpong said during the seminar held at the Laico Atlantic Hotel in Banjul.  He added:  “We decided to organize this seminar not in Ghana but to come to your doorstep so that you would also benefit from us.” 

The insurance tycoon said his company has had a lot of benefits from insurance companies in The Gambia, which prompted them to come to the country to offer some assistance from the benefits they are deriving from the Gambia market. “So it’s just a reciprocal benefit we are giving to the Gambia insurance industry,” he remarked.

He said as part of the seminar they would interact with Gambia insurance companies to know the problems they are encountering with regard to reinsurance business and discuss how best they could strengthen this relationship between the insurance companies in The Gambia and Mainstream Reinsurance.

“You know, reinsurance (which is insurance for insurance companies) is a technical area and most of the staff in various insurance companies find it very difficult to understand certain terms under reinsurance; so we will explain it for them to understand the details of what reinsurance we do,” he said.

“Since we are strengthening the relationships we want the insurance companies to cede more business to us in addition to what we have already so that the relationship will go further up,” the Mainstream Reinsurance MD said.

He pointed out that the main aim of Mainstream Reinsurance is to engage in acquiring the risk of the insurance companies. The company now seeks to expand its activities to the entire West African sub-region and selected African countries as part of its aim of becoming a reliable and secured company throughout Africa, says Mr Frimpong.

Henry Jawo, executive secretary of the Insurance Association of The Gambia, said the seminar was a very important programme, whose benefits to the Gambia insurance industry “are enormous” because the Gambia insurance market deals a lot with Mainstream Reinsurance Companies mainly through the market’s spreading of risk to the latter.

According to Mr Jawo, the seminar was of immense benefit to the insurance industry since it has enlightened staff members working at the reinsurance departments of various companies in the country to be up to speed with what to expect when they are dealing with reinsurance matters.

He added that the relationship that has been built up between insurance companies in the country and Mainstream Reinsurance Company Limited “will be strengthened for the benefit of all stakeholders”.