Gambia insurance companies told to merge

Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy

The vice president of The Gambia, Dr Aja Isatou-Isatou Njie Saidy, has advised insurance companies in the country to come together to form a bigger company that can “be force to be reckon with internationally” with diverse products and services.

Dr Njie-Saidy said: “My advice to the insurance companies is to come together to form a bigger corporation so that they can be a force to be reckoned with.  Instead of two people coming together to form an insurance company, these individual companies should come together and form a bigger company so that they can introduce products and services that meet the needs of all and sundry.”

The vice president made this remark on Thursday at the opening of the third economic summit which is held at Kairaba Beach Hotel in Segenagmbia.

There are currently eleven insurance companies in the Gambia some of which originated from Nigeria and the others are locally own, most of which are owned by individuals.  The insurance industry contribution to the Gambia’s GDP is very minimal which according to the vice president may be due the companies standing alone not coming together to form conglomerates.

If the insurance companies come together in such a joint venture arrangement, it would enable them to have heavy profits as well as improve on the standard of services.

The role of insurance sector, which includes economic growth and providing risk transfer services to individuals and corporations as well as facilitating trade and commerce, could better be played if the small individual insurance companies come together to join forces.

There are great potential for growth of the insurance industry, but this cannot be tapped by individual companies, simply because they may not have the adequate financing to expand into the untapped areas.

The Minister of Trade, Regional Integration and Employment, Abdou Kolley, emphasized that there is a need for the private sector to come together to form big conglomerate and large corporations with solid capital and diverse ownership. 

“Many big corporations around the world today started as a sole ownership and end up coming together to form big business with diverse ownership and offering different products and services, so I see no reason why the Gambians cannot do the same,” the trade minister said.