Ghana would host the West Africa Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) 37th Annual General Meeting and education Conference slated for Monday, April 20, in Accra.

Dubbed: “WAICA Accra 2015,” the three-day event on the theme: “Africa Rising: Taking the Insurance Industry in West Africa to the Next level of Our Development,” would be attended by representatives from Ghana, Nigeria, the Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

It is being organised by Ghana Insurers Association in collaboration with WAICA, National Insurance Commission (NIC), and Ghana Brokers Association.

President John Dramani Mahama would be the Keynote speaker at the conference.

Mr William Coker, Secretary General of WAICA, told a media briefing in Accra that the conference would examine ways of how insurance and micro insurance could help in dealing with disasters such as the Ebola outbreak.

It would also look at how to make insurance less expensive and more accessible to those in the lower income brackets, especially the rural folks, he said.

Mr Coker said WAICA is still relevance in the national economy and cited the ECOWAS Brown Card, which was the brain child of the WAICA way back in 1974.

“ECOWAS bought into the ideas and has extended it to become sub regional project instead of the original idea to limit it to only WAICA member countries,” he added.

He announced that WAICA is also collaborating with the sub regional body on ECOWAS Investment Guarantee Mechanisms, which stakeholders in the industry have bought into and the project would soon be launched.

He explained that the private sector is leading the project and it is near take off and urged all member countries to support it to achieve its goals.

Mr Coker expressed the hope that at the end of the conference they would be able to map out strategies to move the industry to the next level and commended NIC for its continuous support of WAICA events.

WAICA is an International Association of insurance companies in the five English speaking West African Countries with the active support and approval of their respective governments.

It was founded in 1973 to encourage the development of the insurance market in each member country on sound and technical basis; to encourage the exchange of business among member companies operating within Anglophone West Africa;.

It is to encourage the promotion of insurance education in each country and to encourage existing educational institutions such as universities to initiate courses and training programmes on insurance and allied subjects as well as encouraging the exchange of business and personnel from company to company.