New infrastructure projects encourage mergers and acquisitions in East Africa

According to the Deloitte firm, the demand for insurance will be encouraged by infrastructure and energy projects in the East African region. These projects include the modernization of the railway network as well as the launch of a railway and oil project in Lamu which will link Ethiopia to South Sudan.

These investments will activate the mergers and acquisitions in the insurance sector in East Africa in 2015. The capital inflow will also contribute to improving the overall capacity of the market.

In fact, significant mergers and acquisitions have already been recorded in the region in both 2014 and 2015. South Africa's Sanlam Emerging Markets company acquired 63% of the capital of the first Rwandan insurer Soras for an amount of 24.3 million USD. Old Mutual, another South African group, acquired 60.7% of the Kenyan insurer UAP.