Malawi

Axco provides details on the life insurance sector including Malawian market participants, reinsurance and distribution channels. The reports describe classes of business from both individual and group life such as whole life, endowment, term life and unit-linked.
Information on non-life classes for example critical illness and private medical insurance.

The report describes the public and private healthcare system in Malawi, the scope of cover, accessibility financing and provides an analysis of how the public and private systems complement each other.

Axco reports on the three pillars of Malawian pension provision.

• State pension benefits including benefit calculations and eligibility criteria 
• Workplace pension provision; types of schemes calculations eligibility and; tax implications
• Voluntary individual pension provision, type of products and tax implications

The Malawi report provides an in-depth analysis of the regulatory framework governing social security as well as details on financing and eligibility. Information includes but is not limited to

• state pensions,
• permanent disability benefit
• occupational accident and disease
• maternity and paternity payments 

Political problems have dogged economic performance and the "cashgate" affair suggested that corruption was so significant that the international donor community suspended aid. Recent years have seen a currency devaluation and high inflation which have hampered market growth in USD terms. Life market penetration stood at 0.64% in 2019 against a steadily growing population. Growth in MWK terms was 20.74%, the third consecutive year of growth above 20%. In USD terms, the growth was 18.69%, the lowest for three years. Life insurance is encouraged by the government through the compulsory nature of group life sales related to mandatory workplace pension ....

Malawi does not have a state pension and to address the absence of old age provision the government brought in a requirement for workplace pensions. Pensions funds and management are required to run independently of life insurance entities and to this end the major life insurers have set up separate pension companies. Most funds are established on the basis of defined contributions. Penetration rates are said to be increasing after reminders from the authorities to employers about their statutory obligations in this area ....

State welfare provision is scant in Malawi; there is no universal public healthcare with such aid as is available known to be very basic. The private insurance sector continues to grow although some tensions exist between the supervisor's attempts to stabilise the market with capital and solvency controls, and the need to liberalise some aspects of the industry. The market leader continues to lobby government to allow some easement by creating tax incentives which would encourage ....