The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Insurance and Social Security Supervisory Authority (ACAPS) announced on Wednesday that they had entered into a partnership aimed at defining strategic orientations, promoting the acceleration of the digitization of the insurance sector. insurance in Morocco.
This is to allow the sector to adapt to major digital trends, but also to strengthen financial inclusion and reduce vulnerabilities, say the two institutions in a joint statement. As part of this technical assistance program, IFC will support ACAPS in the development of a roadmap to accelerate the digital transformation of the insurance sector and thus benefit from the rapid development of the digital economy on the continent, the statement added.
This technical assistance program contributes to IFC’s efforts to strengthen financial inclusion in Morocco and foster sustainable and equitable economic growth.
“Morocco has a dynamic and resilient insurance market. However, we believe that to consolidate this achievement, we must open the way to new development opportunities and in particular that offered by digital, ”said Othman El Alamy, Acting President of ACAPS, quoted in the press release. He added that “our partnership with IFC will help identify the most favorable conditions for the development of a digital insurance sector, while ensuring the preservation of the rights of policyholders and beneficiaries of contracts”. For his part, Xavier Reille, director of IFC for the Maghreb, declared that “digital tools represent a real opportunity to develop the insurance sector in Morocco by allowing market players to offer innovative products, optimize their processes and meet the protection needs of small businesses, but also of households, not covered today by traditional offers and channels ”. This partnership is part of IFC’s MSME 2.0 program, implemented in Morocco with the support of the Swedish Government, which aims to strengthen the access of small and medium-sized enterprises to financial services.
According to a report published last year by IFC and Google, the digital economy could represent 5.2% of the GDP of the African continent by 2025, or about 180 billion dollars.
Digital solutions are an opportunity to expand access to financial services, including insurance products, in emerging countries. This is particularly the case in Morocco, which is the second largest insurance market in Africa but whose penetration rate of insurance products, one of the highest on the continent, is still below 4%. .
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