AXA Assurance Algeria has signed a co-insurance partnership agreement with state-owned Société Algérienne d’Assurance (SAA or National Insurance), the largest insurer in Algeria, said Mr Pierre Vasserot, CEO of the Algerian unit of the French global insurer.
“We work together to access major industrial risks in particular, and also to see how to work on slightly more advanced partnerships in terms of cross-training,” he said in an interview with Algerian Patriot.
Asked whether he envisaged partnerships with private companies, he said, “For the moment, no. It’s case by case.”
Commenting on AXA Algeria’s medium-term goals, Mr Vasserot said, “In terms of strategy and development, and in terms of group health, we are today the leading life insurer, and we want to continue to develop on the health side.”
Turning to the company’s performance in 2018, he said, “It is true that we are doing less business because we are more selective than in the past. That’s what has happened to us in 2018, when we were forced to cut 30% of our group health portfolio.”
The company has overhauled its offering to focus on pure health insurance last year. He added, “It was the condition for getting the health portfolio right, which we did in 2018.”
AXA Algeria is still a small insurer with about 80 agencies throughout the country, said Mr Vasserot. “Our competitors have between 230 and 500 agencies. We have an opportunity to develop our network and increase our strike force in the field by developing our network of agencies.”
Mr Vasserot said there is very strong development potential in Algeria. He said, “We are not talking about potential in five to 10 years; the opportunities exist now. The penetration rate of insurance is low in Algeria. When compared to GDP, today it is 0.7%. In neighbouring countries, the rate is 2.6%. There are new markets to win over in Algeria. Half of the insurance market is currently dominated by private car insurance.”
As for takaful, he said the company is watching this market. He said, “This is not in the short-term strategy of AXA Algeria. We are looking at how this market is evolving in Algeria. It has started but it’s very small. Today, AXA has 4% market share in Algeria. We think that before going on to takaful, there may be other things to do that could offer us stronger growth. We have, of course, a very attentive eye on the takaful evolution and we will see thereafter.” M