The African Reinsurance Corporation Nairobi Regional office conducted a three-day International Training Seminar at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Upper Hill, Nairobi from 18th to 20th September 2024. The Financial Lines seminar was focused on upskilling the market in Cyber risk insurance, Directors and Officers Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance. The seminar was opened by Ms. Mary Nkoimu, Senior Manager Prudential Supervision, representing the Commissioner of the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Kenya. In her remarks, she applauded Africa Re for conducting the training and reiterated the need for the market to focus on product development. In his remarks, the Regional Director, Dr. Phocas Nyandwi also echoed similar sentiments, and urged the participants to take advantage of these training opportunities. The seminar was well attended with 63 participants in attendance—45 from Kenya, 6 from Ethiopia, 5 from Rwanda, 3 from Tanzania, 2 from Uganda and one from each of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The seminar was followed by a complimentary dinner for the delegates.
In today's digitally driven world, where advancements in technology are transforming industries at an unprecedented pace, the importance of cyber security and insurance protection has never been more apparent. Over the last decade, cyber incidents have gone up worldwide drastically. The Covid-19 pandemic and resultant ‘work from home’ practices further accelerated the rate of cyber incidents—cyber data breach, ransomware, cyber extortion. Phishing and other vices. What is worse is that many companies are not well protected against these dangers. A 2024 survey by Munich Re indicated that 87% of all C-suite respondents said that their company is not well protected against cyber-attacks. Here in Kenya and the broader East Africa region, we see the same trends—including some high profile cases of cyber-attack. Furthermore, cyber insurance is not gaining as much traction as one would anticipate. Many Insurance companies are hesitant to sell cyber risk insurance due to many reasons such as: lack of expertise to conduct cyber risk assessments, absence of underwriters who understand the cyber insurance cover, few players with proven policy forms, risk assessment questionnaires, and underwriting tools required to adequately review and price the cover, lack of incident response expertise and lack of affordable and adequate reinsurance capacity due to concerns about risk quality, cost and high accumulation potential.
