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CIMA disagrees with Cameroonian Insurers over management of Covid-19

A few weeks after the Association of Cameroon Insurance Companies ASAC decided that the management of coronavirus cases “falls under the exclusive prerogative of the State” and not of insurers, the Inter-African Conference on Markets ‘assurances CIMA has just written to the managing directors of insurance and reinsurance companies, inviting them instead to “show flexibility”.

In this letter dated May 18, 2020, the CIMA Secretariat, Issofa Nchare, recalls that “claims resulting from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) should not be subject to any exclusion not provided for in the contracts ” CIMA recommends “fair treatment and protection of the insured” in order to “safeguard the interests of the insured and beneficiaries of contracts”.

To do this, the CIMA requests to “set up an operational system allowing the diligent payment of claims, in particular through the dematerialization of declarations and payments”. Insurers are also advised to “keep a special register of coronavirus-related claims” and to “ensure clear and fair communication to policyholders and the public”. CIMA  further recommends that insurance companies “maintain solvency and a level of cash in accordance with regulations” and “defer the distribution of dividends to shareholders”.

For the moment, it is unclear what follow-up the ASAC will reserve for the recommendations of the gendarme of the sector in French-speaking Africa. In a correspondence sent on April 22, 2020 to his counterpart of the Association of Professionals of Credit Institutions of Cameroon APECCAM, Théophile Gérard Moulong had indicated that “the death guarantee, contained both in collective credit contracts and in contracts holding accounts, is not acquired for claims due to Covid-19 ”.