The government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is on Wednesday, July 7, expected to sign a host agreement with ZEP-RE which is expected to see the latter set up a presence in the country, The New Times understands.

The Cabinet in May this year approved a host country agreement between the Government of Rwanda and ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company).

ZEP-RE was established by an Agreement of Heads of State and Government of the COMESA region in 1990 with the company launching operations in 1993 with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

The key mandate of ZEP-RE according to the firm is promoting trade, development and integration in the insurance and reinsurance sector.

"ZEP-RE is further mandated to: transact reinsurance business through Treaty and facultative cessions in respect of all or some classes of insurance inside as well as outside the sub-region; create and administer pools for various risks for the account and to the interest of the sub-region’s insurance and reinsurance markets.

The firm is also mandated to facilitate the training of insurance and reinsurance industry personnel in the Sub-Region; provide technical assistance to the insurance and reinsurance institutions of the sub-region; invest its funds in the sub-region in a manner that promotes economic development, provided the company may invest outside the sub-region to meet its operational and/or technical requirements,” the firm’s profile reads in part.

ZEP RE serves COMESA countries, as well as many non-COMESA Member States such as Morocco, and Algeria in North Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Senegal, Mozambique and Tanzania.

The move enters Rwanda at a time when the local insurance sector has been said to bear untapped potential with penetration at less than 2 per cent and characterized by underwriting losses.