This is just a quick notification for those charities with operations in South East Africa, as commercial interests have proposed that the region becomes a free trade zone. This would benefit insurance, as these countries have many and varied different stances to insurance regulation that make global insurance programmes complicated to develop and implement.

The proposal is that a common adoption of 25% national retention is implemented which will protect the local insurance industry and provide clarity to foreign owned organisations as to what must be insured in-country and what can be insured under a global insurance programme established outside of the African country of operation.

In addition the leaders of three African regional economic blocs led by South African President Jacob Zuma signed a commitment to develop a free trade zone stretching from Cape Town to Cairo in June.

The Grand Free Trade Area (GFTA) would include 26 countries and seeks to bolster inter-regional trade by creating a common marketplace, increased investment flows, enhanced competitiveness and developing cross regional infrastructure – all of which will no doubt be good news for any operations that you have in this area.

Again we will watch this develop over time and report back to you in the future.