Navigating the African Insurance Landscape: Insights on Industry Trends, Leadership, and Brokerage Futures

Tony interviews Ayouba Seydou, OLEA's Director Group placement and Reinsurance, about Africa’s insurance market from 2025 into 2026. Ayouba says 2025 saw strong foreign investment across Africa, increased regulatory changes in reinsurance such as higher local retentions, controls on cessions leaving Africa, and local content rules, alongside many election cycles. He frames these shifts as opportunities for brokers to advise clients by leveraging on-the-ground proximity to regulators, educating both regulators and international partners, and helping clients treat new rules as competitive advantages. He highlights reinsurance’s importance given low local capacity and lender demand for rated security, noting Africa Re and Allianz Re as rated options. The discussion also covers professionalism through technical training, soft skills, and mentoring, and OLEA's “territories, technology, talent” approach and pan-African focus.