ATIDI eyes US$1 billion capital to cover more risks

The continent’s premier derisking instrument has a capital base of US$700 million and is eyeing to sign up six member States to bring the total to 30 in three years, according to CEO Manuel Moses.
Pan African trade credit and political risk insurer, African Trade & Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI), says it is on course to reach US$1 billion capital in three years to cover more risks on the continent amid growing demand for its products.

The continent’s premier derisking instrument has a capital base of US$700 million and is eyeing to sign up six member States to bring the total to 30 in three years, according to CEO Manuel Moses.

“We are now US$700 million. We were 21 countries, now we are 24 countries and we have a plan that by 2027 we want to be in 30 countries. So, we are well on our way to achieving that. We believe that by 2027, we would have doubled our capital as stated two years ago. We are on that journey and it’s continuing,” Moses said.

Zimbabwe is among the 24 countries that are shareholders of ATIDI after joining the Nairobi-headquartered institution in 2016.

The US$1 billion capital base, Moses said, will “make us a bit more meaningful”.

“We will take more risks. As of today with the US$600m or US$700m we have, we have been able to underwrite US$10bn. If you do the maths, that’s about 12 times our capital. We can leverage our capital 12 times. We want to do more because the pie is getting bigger, we have to be ready to respond to that pie, otherwise there will be no capacity to help businesses if we are tiny,” he said.

Moses said ATIDI was closely following the membership of Egypt. One of Africa’s largest economies has made steps to be a member of the institution.

“We welcome Egypt. It’s a big market, a big economy. It needs to be in this family so that there is more intra-African trade between Egypt and the rest of the continent.”

ATIDI had an exposure of US$9,6 billion last year up from US$8,1 billion in 2022, representing new business added to the portfolio, big risks covered by ATIDI and the high demand for ATIDI products in the member States.

The gross exposure was heavily skewed in favour of west Africa at US$4,4 billion, ahead of east Africa (US$2,8 billion) and southern Africa (US$1,4 billion).

Moses said there is a need to challenge southern and eastern African countries to tap into ATIDI in the same manner west African countries such as Togo and Benin are doing.

“We are driven by the demand in the countries. So if there is more demand for our services in west Africa, we have to respond to that and we can equally respond to the eastern and southern African countries as they demand requests for our services,” he said.-newsday