The insurance market in the Maghreb

Algiers centre. Seafront © Sandervalya,CC BY-SA 3.0

General context

Status of the Maghreb insurance sector

The cumulated turnover of the three central Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco) are estimated at 4.8 billion USD in 2011. This amount accounts for a substantial share of the African market, that is, 7.2% of the overall collections achieved on the continent (31%), South Africa being excluded. At the global level, premiums collection in the Maghreb remains negligible, accounting for only 0.1% of the business underwritten worldwide.

According to the last ranking established by the magazine Sigma, the Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian markets are respectively standing in the 53^rd, 64^th and 77^th positions. Morocco is, nonetheless, the second African market, far behind South Africa.

Life and non life premiums in 2011

1. Penetration rate

Penetration rate stands for the share of insurance in a country’s gross domestic product.

With respective penetration rates of 2.9%, 1.8% and 0.7%, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are standing beyond the fiftieth rank worldwide. The average of the African continent remains much higher than the figures mentioned above with 3.62% for life and non-life insurance combined, that is, 2.46% for life and 1.16% for non-life business. It is South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius and Kenya which are pulling these rates. By comparison, insurance penetration rate worldwide amounts to 6.6% (3.77% in life and 2.83% in non-life).

Penetration rate in 2011

2. Insurance density

Insurance density indicates the sums annually disbursed by each inhabitant to insurance.

Insurance density in Morocco and Tunisia are slightly above the African average set at 65.2 USD per capita (44.3 USD in life and 20.9 USD in non-life). These figures remain, nevertheless, insufficient in comparison with the insurance density at the global level which amounts to 661 USD per capita (377.7 USD in life and 283.2 USD in non-life).

The analysis of the insurance penetration rate shows that in the three Maghreb countries, life insurance is less developed than non-life whereas in Africa and around the world, it is the other way round.

Insurance density in 2011, premium per capita in USD