Impact Story

This project, which started in April 2006, followed on from recommendations made under the FSAP conducted by the World Bank. The recipient was the National Insurance Commission (NIC) of Rwanda and the consultants funded by FIRST were QED based in South Africa and part of the multi-national insurance group AON.

The original terms of reference included capacity building and training at the NIC and this part was eventually deferred because a new unified regulator was established that would absorb the responsibilities of the NIC. The project focus was then narrowed to concentrate on the Insurance Law which was in two parts: “short term” insurance (effectively non-life) and “long term” insurance (mainly life). The consultants also supplied sets of template documents for the benefit of the NIC (or its successor) based on those used by the Financial Standards Board in South Africa:

• Regulatory forms for insurers and intermediaries – various reporting formats
• Registration certificates
• Market Code of Ethics & Practice

A workshop, organized by the National Bank of Rwanda, was held on the draft Insurance Law and feedback was incorporated, where appropriate, into the draft legislation.

Lessons learned:

• Good coordination between the various stakeholders is essential. Rwanda had established a Financial Sector Development Plan team (pursuant to the FSAP recommendations) and the National Bank also played a key role. The coordination worked well in this instant, and effectively, this led to good consultations on the draft legislation and feedback from stakeholders.
• Reinsurance was lacking in Rwanda and the capacity to verify the risk standing of potential reinsurers was also lacking. The recommendations therefore encouraged development of relations with two established reinsurers in the region — Africa Re and CICA Re – and otherwise required that reinsurers had an international rating not less than BBB.
• Active involvement of the World Bank insurance experts was very beneficial to the project’s outputs and focus.

Reports:

• The Final Report from the consultants. The Appendices – especially those with proposed reporting formats in Excel – are potentially applicable in many other countries. The comments on the Law are for Rwanda but again many parts deal with issues that are applicable elsewhere.