The African Risk Capacity Limited (ARC Ltd) Governance Committee has appointed two new Non-Executive Directors (NEDs), Ms. Sarata Kone-Thiam and Ms. Lade’ A. Araba, to join its Board of Directors thereby completing the Board complement of seven individuals in line with structure. The new directors are joining a group of other industry experts led by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh in serving as Directors to steer ARC Limited towards a more sustainable future through sound, ethical, legal, governance and financial management policies and practices towards the advancement of its mission.
In just over 6 years of operations, 56 policies have been signed by the ARC Member States with USD 83 million paid in premiums for cumulative insurance coverage of USD 641 million and the protection of 64.1 million vulnerable population in participating countries. From this, ARC Ltd made $60m payouts to the Governments of Senegal, Mauritania and Malawi and the START Network following droughts episodes in 2014, 2015 and 2019. These funds have gone towards assisting over 2, 480, 500 million people whose livelihoods rely on agriculture, preventing the loss of hard-earned developmental gains in addition to 1, 295, 189 livestock. Governments have used ARC Ltd insurance payouts to scale up cash transfers, subsidize livestock feeds, replenish depleted food reserves, and distribute emergency food supplies. This is in addition to recent payouts of USD 2,13 million made to the Republic of Madagascar to cover 600,000 vulnerable population; and $1,755,890 to Government of Zimbabwe and WFP to support over 500,000 people affected by the drought in 2019/2020 agricultural season in both countries.
Speaking on the appointments, ASG Mohamed Beavogui, the Director-General of ARC Agency said, “We have always relied on the versatile technical knowledge and business savviness of our Board members in setting the tone for smart operations. The appointment of Sarata and Laide will invariably strengthen our strategy oversight and help consolidate the excellent governance practices we have acculturated over the years.” The ARC Ltd is a financial affiliate of the African Risk Capacity (ARC), which is a Specialised Agency of the African Union established to assist member states in tackling the impact of natural disasters on vulnerable people. ARC transfers the burden of weather and other natural disaster risks away from governments, enabling them to build resilience and better plan, prepare, and respond to extreme events. Seeded by the UK’s DFID and Germany’s BMZ through KFW, ARC Ltd is a mutual insurance company that will eventually be wholly owned by African sovereigns.
Welcoming the new Directors, the CEO of ARC Ltd, Mr. Lesley Ndlovu, stated, “As ARC seeks to diversify its products and risk portfolio to better serve the needs of Member States in responding to climate and natural disasters in a more resilient manner, we need the expertise of trusted industry technocrats. I believe that Ms. Kone-Thiam and Ms. Araba will bring the right mix of experience and passion to enable us rapidly move towards extending our coverage thereby improving lives and livelihoods across the continent.” The appointments of the new Directors terms commenced on 01 August 2020 and will run for renewable terms of up to 6 years in tenure.