The Moroccan insurance sector is dealing with several new developments aimed at consolidating its financial strength and governance as well as promoting its growth, Mr Othman El Alamy, secretary general of the Insurance Supervisory Authority and Social Insurance (ACAPS) has said.
In an interview with The Morning, he said the developments include product diversification, the introduction of takaful, and the promotion of home insurance.
“Given the growing confidence in the insurance system and the performance of this sector in recent years, we can only be reasonably optimistic about the future of this sector. Predicting the future growth of this sector is not easy. However, we believe that under normal conditions, an annual growth rate of turnover of around 7% to 9% over the next five years is entirely possible,” Mr El Alamy said.
He said the insurance market remains dominated by life and health insurance and compulsory insurance – that together account for more than 70% of total turnover.
Life insurance accounts for 43.8% of total direct business. It grew in 2017 at 18.8% to MAD17bn ($1.8bn), driven mainly by savings insurance (+ 23.0%), which is becoming more and more important with a share of 80.3% of total life business.
Likewise, motor insurance accounts for a large part of the non-life business, with a 48.2% share. Its turnover has recorded in recent years a steady growth of around 5%.
Overall, the insurance sector in Morocco grew by 11% to MAD39bn in 2017 in terms of premiums, compared to the previous year. Non-life premiums amounted to nearly MAD22bn, representing an increase of 5.6% over 2016.
The insurance law has been amended to make other lines mandatory, notably construction all-risk and decennial liability insurance. In addition, legislative changes were made to institute mandatory coverage of catastrophic events in certain insurance contracts. The implementing texts relating to these mandatory coverages are now in their final adoption phase, Mr El Alamy said. M
MAD1 = $0.11