This is to help grow their businesses.

Mr Kyerematen said while the free trade area provided enormous opportunities to businesses, including insurers, companies that failed to build the relevant capacity, expertise and capital risked missing out.

He mentioned track record, customer service and capital outlay as some of the critical areas for insurance companies when it came to benefit from the continental pact.

The Trade and Industry Minister advised in Accra when he opened the new head office building of indigenous insurer, Imperial General Assurance.

Commendation

The office complex building is located at Labone in Accra.

Mr Kyerematen commended the shareholders of Imperial General Assurance for the investment into the building, noting that it would help strengthen the company’s brand.

He was optimistic that the facility would be put to good use by helping to improve customer service and the delivery of Imperial General’s products and services.

Strategy

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Robert Wugah, said the opening of the head office formed part of the company’s strategic plans to expand its operations and to serve its clients better.

He said the company had, over the past few months, embarked on strategic restructuring that repositions it to offer better services and improve service delivery to both potential and current customers.

Mr Wugah said shareholders have also injected significant capital into the company to help make it capital-compliant and also liquid enough to underwrite big-ticket transactions.

He said the capital had positioned Imperial among the few Ghanaian-owned companies in the industry to have met the new minimum capital requirement by the National Insurance Commission (NIC).

“This additional capital injected is indeed a great milestone and shows the readiness of Imperial to take on any general insurance business in Ghana,” the CEO said.

Major player

The Commissioner of Insurance, Justice Ofori, commended Imperial General for its enormous contribution to the insurance sector and urged it to do more to help increase the penetration.

He described the company as one of the domestically-controlled insurance companies with a strong performance in asset growth and profitability.

He also assured the general public that the NIC would continue to take tough decisions to sanitise the insurance sector.