Classes of Insurance Business
How insurance business is classified and licensed in Ghana.
Insurance business in Ghana is divided into two principal classes — life and non-life (general). The class a company writes determines how it is licensed and supervised: a single insurer may not carry on both, so life and non-life businesses operate as separate licensed entities.
Life business
Life insurance provides longer-term financial protection and savings — paying out on death, at the end of a term, or as a regular income.
- Ordinary life — term, whole-life and endowment policies
- Group life — schemes arranged for employees or members
- Annuities & pensions — retirement-income products
- Unit-linked & investment-linked business
Non-life (general) business
- Motor — third-party and own-damage cover for vehicles
- Fire & property — buildings and contents
- Marine, aviation & transit — goods and vessels in transit
- Engineering — construction, erection and machinery risks
- Liability — public, product, professional and employers' liability
- Accident & miscellaneous — personal accident, travel and other general risks
Why the classes are kept separate
Keeping life and non-life business in separate entities protects policyholders: long-term life funds are ring-fenced from short-term general-insurance risks, and each entity is capitalised and supervised according to the risks it carries.
Reinsurance — insurance for insurers — is licensed and supervised as its own category.