African Risk Capacity names new Director General

The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group, a parametric sovereign disaster risk insurer for African nations, has elected a new Director-General (DG), with Ibrahima Cheikh Diong unanimously voted into the position.

Diong is an African statesman from the Republic of Senegal and a Civil Engineer by profession.

Diong will work alongside Lesley Ndlovu, the CEO of ARC Ltd (the insurance arm of the ARC Group), to further the development and roll-out of advanced disaster risk transfer and management strategies for African nations.

The African Risk Capacity (ARC) has underwritten close to $600 million of parametric disaster insurance premiums over the years and made around $60 million of payouts to African nations impacted by droughts.

With a mandate to assist African nations in becoming better prepared for natural disasters, through a combination of risk transfer and risk mitigation or resilience building, ARC leverages the appetite of global reinsurance markets to help it provide more affordable risk transfer to its African nation members.

ARC has been steadily expanding its parametric disaster risk pool, resulting in the need for more reinsurance capacity to support ARC’s expansion.

Recently the insurer has sought to add coverage for new perils including coverage for future outbreaks of the coronavirus pandemic.

The new DG will be tasked with leading the further development of ARC, as it continues to expand its usefulness in bringing efficient reinsurance capacity, risk pooling and parametric risk transfer techniques, alongside resilience measures, to benefit African nations.

Diong commented on his appointment, “I fully comprehend and appreciate the incredible mission and outstanding work of ARC. With my professional and highly efficient colleagues, we will work relentlessly to not only consolidate the impact of ARC’s work in our current 34 member countries, but to also to scale up our disaster risk management interventions to the rest of the African continent.”

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chairperson of the ARC Agenc, added, “It is reassuring to know that the ARC Group is set for good continuity and even greater strides in the delivery of its continental mission. We have gone from providing disaster risk coverage to a handful of countries at the beginning, to the impressive number of countries we have in our pool today. We have also achieved remarkable governance reforms resulting in greater recognition of our work by various stakeholders. Ibrahima is an astute statesman and well-rounded professional; and I speak for the Group that we could not have been blessed with a more accomplished African to take this institution forward.”