Page 14 - M1_Insurance Introduction Notes

Across the African continent, especially in Sub-Saharan

Africa, it was South Africa that was to take the lead.

Dutch and British immigrants founded combined fire

and life insurance companies already in the 1830s. In

the early 20th century the South African state took a

unique approach by choosing to do without social

insurance and leaving old age provision to life insurers.

The South African government created jobs with

tied-in pensions and medical provision when

confronted with large workforces flocking to the cities

after World War I. Over the next decades the country

not only attained the worldwide highest proportion of

life insurance, or long-term insurance, as it was to be

called, but South Africa became a leading expert in life

market innovations.

However, both the size and number of risks to be

insured began outstripping the capacities of the

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