Reflecting on your first quarter as Group CEO of MUA Ltd, what has been your biggest observation and initial impressions?
On similarities between the Mauritian market and markets in which I have previously worked. There are solid structures and good governance already in place in Mauritius. However, the market is still far behind more developed markets in terms of sophistication, customer experience, digitalisation, and analytics. The last point is key as there is a strong potential to import the know-how that already exists elsewhere.
On East Africa’s enormous growth opportunity. East African markets are rapidly developing, and as they do so insurers present in this market will have the double benefit of strong population growth and the potential for insurance penetration to increase manifold. MUA is the only Mauritian insurer with a suitable operational structure to benefit from this opportunity. At present, it is also one of the few regional insurers with the market presence and structure to fully exploit that potential. Therefore, while the General Insurance business in Mauritius still accounted for slightly more than half of the group’s General Insurance business in 2022, I expect that in a few years the East African business volume will be a multiple of the volume in Mauritius. Moreover, the resulting economies of scale will also make our East African business increasingly profitable. While we are already a market leader in Mauritius, it is the East African business that has the potential to deliver robust shareholder returns in the coming years.
On MUA’s Key Strengths:
- A single IT system across the group
- Strong reinsurance partners
- Market leader in Mauritius
- Strong regional presence across four markets in East Africa and the Seychelles
On MUA’s Challenges:
- Mauritius remains a relatively small market, with an ageing population, limited growth potential and 15 General Insurance companies.
- Relatively small market share in our East African markets.
- Highly fragmented and competitive insurance market in Kenya.
How would you describe the year 2022 for the insurance market?
Challenging: the market has been heavily impacted by claim inflation, equity market volatility and the sustained pressure on disposal income. Most insurers have been slow to react and are writing business at levels which I doubt are sustainable. MUA has taken all necessary steps to adjust to this environment, ensuring that our capital base remains solid. Our customers can have the peace of mind that we will be there when they need us to pay a claim. That may not apply to some of our competitors. In fact, we are already seeing that several insurers are slow to fulfil their obligations, which we believe is not a good sign.
Rapidly evolving customer needs and preferences coupled with increasing digitalisation. MUA already has several tools and platforms which allow customers to manage their insurance autonomously: including buying and renewing their cover online; submitting and tracking their health claims via our new Health by MUA app.
In East Africa, we continue our growth trajectory. In parallel we have reviewed and made the required changes to our portfolios, thus having layed the foundations for improving margins in these dynamic markets.
Life insurance in Mauritius: our strong and profitable new business growth continued in 2022. MUA was able to demonstrate its position as a strong market leader in this segment.
As an insurance professional for more than 20 years, which opportunities do you think MUA is well placed to pursue in the coming years. What does 2023 hold for the wider market and MUA?
The market is expected to remain difficult in 2023, and for the time being I am not very optimistic to see an improvement in the overall market in Mauritius. However, MUA will continue being proactive and taking initiatives that will benefit our customers, partners, and shareholders. We are about to implement a transformation programme aimed at bringing world-class standards to our internal processes, our analytic capabilities, the training, and motivation of our teams and – most importantly – to the ways we interact with our customers, intermediaries, and partners. Stay tuned …
As outlined, East Africa is expected to continue to grow in significance and return for MUA, particularly in Kenya. The potential and the opportunities are there for the taking, and we intend to leverage our strengths to grow our market share in this region.
