Ghana Insurers Get Six-Month Extension to Meet New Capital Base

(Bloomberg) -- Ghana granted insurers a six-month extension to comply with new minimum capital requirements as companies deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Underwriters now have until Jan. 1, 2022 to boost their capital bases, Kofi Andoh, the deputy commissioner at Ghana’s Insurance Commission, said in a telephone interview.

“The companies have complained that the coronavirus pandemic disrupted their plans,” Andoh said. “It was only fair to listen to their appeal for extension.”

Read more about the overhaul of Ghana’s insurance industry

The regulator in June 2019 gave the country’s 51 life and non-life insurers two years to increase their minimum capital by more than a third to 50 million cedis ($8.5 million). The minimum amount for reinsurers was raised to 125 million cedis from 40 million cedis.

The industry will need a total injection of about 900 million cedis to satisfy the new conditions, the regulator said in March.

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