Dr. Kershen Pillay, CEO of Graduate Institute of Financial Services (GIFS)
There is a certain irony in the insurance business. Brokers sell peace of mind, yet most customers only discover how much peace of mind they actually bought on one of the worst days of their lives. The policy document that sat untouched in their inbox suddenly matters. The exclusions matter. The promises made by the adviser matter. And the insurer’s values, so elegantly described in annual reports and advertising campaigns, are suddenly put to the test. That is when trust stops being a brand word and becomes personal.
I have spent enough time in and around financial services to know that people rarely remember the intricacies of a product. They remember how an institution made them feel when they needed it most. Were they listened to? Were things explained? Were they treated fairly? Did somebody take responsibility? For African insurers, I believe those questions are becoming increasingly important.
Various opportunities for growth, if we listen
The industry is navigating digitisation, regulatory evolution, changing demographics and mounting climate and economic risk. Deloitte’s 2025/26 Africa Insurance Outlook identifies trust-building and customer-centric product design among the opportunities for growth across African insurance. In this environment, ethical leadership is not the softer side of business. It is business. Advisors know about governance because there are frameworks, policies, committees, dashboards and increasingly sophisticated systems for monitoring risk. And they all matter. However, I have always believed that the real test of governance arrives when nobody has prepared a PowerPoint presentation for it.
Every day, we hear about the difficult claim, the unhappy customer, or the employee who says that something does not feel right. The commercially attractive decision that technically passes every test but fails the simplest one: Is this fair?
Compliance asks whether we can do something and ethical leadership sometimes requires us to ask whether we should. That distinction will become increasingly important as insurance embraces artificial intelligence, automation and data-driven decision-making.
The 2026 Africa Insurance Pulse notes that poor or inconsistent data can restrict insurers’ ability to price accurately, innovate responsibly and scale sustainably. Data may become one of insurance’s greatest assets but leaders still have to decide how responsibly that asset is used. AI can make a decision faster but it cannot inherit the accountability for that decision. That remains yours, in industry.
I have come to realise another uncomfortable truth about insurance. Nobody buys a funeral policy hoping to test the claims department. Nobody insures a home because they are looking forward to a flood. Nobody protects a business because interruption sounds appealing. Insurance exists precisely because something might go wrong.
Which means that the moment of claim is often the moment when the corporate language disappears and the human relationship begins. A customer dealing with loss does not want your organisational chart. They want clarity. This does not mean every claim must be paid. Insurers have contractual and fiduciary obligations that must be honoured. I also realise that fairness is not the same thing as always saying yes. Sometimes it is explaining a no with dignity, transparency and enough humanity for someone to understand why. That, too, builds trust.
Africa cannot innovate its way around trust
There is tremendous excitement about the future of African insurance and rightly so. A young population, technological development and changing distribution models are reshaping the market. However, in our enthusiasm for frictionless journeys, instant onboarding and increasingly personalised products, we should remember something wonderfully old-fashioned. People still need to trust insurance advisors. While insurance is available through a smartphone in minutes, if customers do not believe the institution behind that screen will honour its promise when it matters, the insurance company would have digitised the transaction without strengthening the relationship.
That is not transformation but a faster journey to the same trust problem.
Leadership becomes the competitive advantage
Products can be copied. Technology can be bought. Pricing advantages rarely last forever but culture is considerably harder to replicate. We, at GIFS, are developing the next generation of insurance professionals by understanding that this does not only mean producing technically competent people. While competence is key, Africa also needs financial-services leaders with judgement. Leaders willing to ask uncomfortable questions. Leaders who understand that governance is not something done to satisfy a regulator but something that protects customers, employees, shareholders and institutions themselves. And leaders who understand that what they tolerate quietly eventually becomes what their organisation represents publicly. The irony is that, in an industry obsessed with measuring risk, one of the greatest risks may be difficult to model on a spreadsheet. It is the moment a customer loses trust. Because insurance ultimately asks people to make an extraordinary leap of faith: trust us today to be there tomorrow.
The African insurers that prosper over the coming years will certainly need technology, capital, innovation and exceptional technical expertise. They will also need something more fundamental. They will need to be worthy of that trust. And that begins with leadership.