COP22: Africa at the center of climate change concerns

For the third time since it was created in 1995, the UN climate change conference is being hosted by an African city, providing a new forum to address climate change issues in Africa. This rapidly changing region remains especially exposed to climate risks.

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For Salaheddine Mezouar, President of COP22, this conference in Marrakech is an opportunity to make the voices of the most vulnerable countries to climate change heard, in particular African countries and island states. African nations are in fact particularly at risk, especially with respect to their infrastructure.

Insurance has a vital role to play in protecting vulnerable populations against the effects of climate change. Across Africa, AXA would like to see the insurance net extended, particularly to those communities and areas most at risk.

Lastly, AXA must help promote strategies to build resilience to the effects of climate change, in Africa and in all the most vulnerable regions.

AXA's presence in Africa

AXA currently operates in eight African countries: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Gabon, the Ivory Coast and Cameroon. The Group offers a wide range of products, services and solutions in Africa:

Parametric insurance (through AXA Corporate Solutions)
Reinsurance (Africa Re)
Micro-insurance & micro-finance (MicroEnsure & MicroCred)
Utilities (Eranove)
Private equity (LeapFrog & Amethis)
Online services (Africa Internet Group)
Sovereign disaster risk solutions (Africa Risk Capacity)
Specialty insurance (Africa Specialty Risks)

Focus on Nigeria

Nigeria has been identified, with Egypt, as potentially the highest growth amongst African countries. In 2014, Nigeria overtook South Africa for the first time to become Africa’s leading economic power. The result of a decade of sustained growth during which the country, which was previously dependent on oil, has diversified its economy. AXA began operating in Nigeria at the end of 2014, after the Mansard acquisition. Founded in 1989 and the world’s 97th biggest company in 2003, Mansard became AXA Mansard in 2014. It is now Nigeria’s third largest insurer. Growth opportunities for this entity – in a country with a population of 180 million and very little insurance penetration as of yet – are especially promising.

Follow Noel, our in-house reporter, to discover Lagos and AXA in Nigeria: