Project Case Study
Privatising Tanzania’s National Insurance Corporation
Assessing the privatisation options for the insurance sector
As part of Tanzania’s wider programme of privatisation, which was finishing its initial phase in 2001, we were selected by the World Bank to undertake a privatisation options study for the National Insurance Corporation of Tanzania.
The team worked alongside the senior management of the Corporation in order to analyse the financial and business information required to formulate proposals for privatisation, predominantly focusing on whether the two sides of the business (life and non-life insurance) should be split, or remain together. We also undertook initial legal due diligence to identify any legal obstacles to privatisation of the company.
The study entailed undertaking a regulatory review of the insurance market as a whole to ascertain where more stringent regulation was required to properly regulate the market before the privatisation of the National Insurance Corporation. Our team produced a roadmap for regulation as part of this exercise. We also consulted private insurers to discuss their perceptions of the Corporation, and to see whether they had any interest in purchasing any part of its business.
The privatisation option and sector reforms which we recommended were accepted by the government. Our team was then retained to implement the privatisation transaction. We produced the complete set of bid documents, including the information memorandum and legal documents, organised the road shows, managed the bid process, and assisted in the bid evaluations to ensure the privatisation was successfully completed. The Tanzanian insurance market is now one of the most effective in Africa.
