Home Who Do You Trust? Trust and Insurance Through Africa’s Past and Future
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Who Do You Trust? Trust and Insurance Through Africa’s Past and Future

  • Grietjie Verhoef ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 7, 2022
Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance
From the journal Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance Volume 17 Issue 2

Abstract

Global disruption positions risk mitigation at the centre of survival strategies. Social risk mitigation strategies display relationships of trust, responsibility and culture. Insurance in global markets expands as bi-polarism began to contract from the early 1990s, but the massive external shocks of the pandemic and the rising interest environment impact negatively on this advance. What is likely the nature of risk mitigation responses in the post-pandemic era? How have societies, especially in developing regions such as some African societies, responded to the growing risk and existential threats? This paper explores African risk mitigation strategies in the past and the potential for future alignment of global insurance products to the demands of 21st Century African markets.

Keywords: community; trust; risk sharing; income; middle-class culture
Corresponding author: Grietjie Verhoef, Accountancy, University of Johannesburg Faculty of Economic and Financial Sciences, Kingsway, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, Gauteng 2006, South Africa, E-mail:

References

AfDB. 2011. The Middle of the Pyramid, Dynamics of the Middle Class in Africa. Tunis: African Development Bank.Search in Google Scholar

Alhassan, L. A., and N. Biekpe. 2016. “Determinants of Life Insurance Consumption in Africa.” Research in International Business and Finance 37 (1): 17–27.10.1016/j.ribaf.2015.10.016Search in Google Scholar

Asuming, P. O., L. G. Osei-Agyei, and J. I. Mohammed. 2019. “Financial Inclusion in Sub-saharan Africa: Recent Trends and Determinants.” Journal of African Business 20 (1): 121–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228916.2018.1484209.Search in Google Scholar

Beito, D. T. 2000. From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State. Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890–1967. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Search in Google Scholar

Berg, E., M. Blake, and K. Morsink. 2021. Risk Sharing and the Demand for Insurance: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia.10.1016/j.jebo.2021.12.035Search in Google Scholar

Besley, T., S. Coate, and G. Loury. 1993. “The Economics of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations.” The American Economic Review 83 (4): 792–810.10.2307/2297915Search in Google Scholar

Besley, T. 1995. “Nonmarket Institutions for Credit and Risk Sharing in Low-Income Countries.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 9 (3): 115–27. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.9.3.115.Search in Google Scholar

Borscheid, P., and N. Viggo-Haueter, eds. 2012. World Insurance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199657964.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Cavusgil, S. T., and S. Guercini. 2014. “Trends in Middle Class as a Driver for Strategic Marketing.” Mercati & Competitività 3: 7–10. https://doi.org/10.3280/mc2014-003001.Search in Google Scholar

Cavusgil, S. T., S. Deligonul, I. Kardes, and E. Cavusgil. 2018. “Middle-Class Consumers in Emerging Markets: Conceptualization, Propositions and Implications for International Marketers.” Journal of International Marketing 26 (3): 94–108. https://doi.org/10.1509/jim.16.0021.Search in Google Scholar

Chikweche, T., J. Lapperman, and P. Egan. 2021. “Revising Middle-Class Consumers in Africa: A Cross-Country City-Based Investigation Utlining Implications for International Marketers.” Journal of International Marketing 29 (4): 79–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069031x211028589.Search in Google Scholar

Cole, S., X. Giné, J. Vickery, and The World Bank. 2013. How Does Risk Management Influence Production Decisions? Evidence from a Field Experiment. Also available at http://econ.worldbank.org.10.1596/1813-9450-6546Search in Google Scholar

Economist. 2020. Has Covid-19 Killed Globalism? The Flow of People, Trade and Capital Will Be Slowed. London: The Economist.Search in Google Scholar

Ekesiobi, C., and S. K. Dimnwobi. 2020. “Economic Assessment of the Entrepreneurship Model for Entrepreneurial Development in Nigeria: Evidence from Clusters in Anambra State.” In Working Paper Wp/20/085, 1–27. European Xtramile Centre of African Studies.10.1108/IJEBR-11-2019-0640Search in Google Scholar

Fukuyama, F. 1989. “The End of History?” The National Interest 16 (1): 3–18.Search in Google Scholar

Fukuyama, F. 1995. Trust. The Social Virtue and the Creation of Prosperity. London: Penguin.Search in Google Scholar

Gosden, P. H. J. H. 1973. Self Help. Voluntary Association in the 19th Century Britain. London: Batsford.Search in Google Scholar

Hopkins, E. 1966. Working Class Self-Help in Nineteenth Century England: Responses to Industrialisation. London: University College of London Press.Search in Google Scholar

Huntington, S. P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72 (1): 22–49.10.2307/20045621Search in Google Scholar

Ifeakor, C. S., and A. Otteh. 2017. “African Environmental Ethics: A Non-anthropocentric African Environmentalism. The Journey so Far.” African Journal of Arts and Humanities 3 (6): 65–95.Search in Google Scholar

Levenson, A. R., and T. Besley. 1996. “The Anatomy of an Informal Financial Market: Rosca Participation in Taiwan.” Journal of Development Economics 51 (1): 45–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3878(96)00425-7.Search in Google Scholar

Lippman, B., R. Sutton, A. Doby, I. Zeynep, K. Gulsah, H. Shaffa, A. Ceren, R. Brigitte. 2022. “Covid-19: Understanding the Impact of the Pandemic on Forcibly Displaced Persons.” In A Covid Collective Research for Policy and Practice: Covid Collective.10.19088/CC.2021.010Search in Google Scholar

Melber, H. 2016. The Rise of Africa’s Middle Class: Myths, Realities and Critical Engagements. London: Zed Books.10.5040/9781350251168Search in Google Scholar

Ngwenya, C. 2018. What Is Africanness. Contesting Nativism in Race, Culture and Sexualities. Pretoria: University of Pretoria Law Press.Search in Google Scholar

Osiri, J. K. 2020. “Igbo Management Philosophy: A Key for Success in Africa.” Journal of Management History 26 (3): 295–314. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-10-2019-0067.Search in Google Scholar

Redford, D. T., and G. Verhoef. 2022. Transforming Africa. How Savings Groups Foster Financial Inclusion, Resilience and Economic Development. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.10.1108/9781802620535Search in Google Scholar

Swiss Re. 2021. “World Insurance: The Recovery Gains Pace.” In Sigma 3/2021. Zürich: Swiss Re.Search in Google Scholar

Sudarwan, P. M. B., K. Phaengsoi, and A. Suksri. 2015. “Savings Groups.” The International Journal of Sustainability in Economic, Social and Cultural Context 11 (4): 11–8. https://doi.org/10.18848/2325-1115/cgp/v11i04/55167.Search in Google Scholar

Verhoef, G. 2012. “South Africa: Leading African Insurance. World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by P. Borscheid, and N. Viggo-Haueter. London: Oxford Press. chapter 8.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199657964.003.0014Search in Google Scholar

Verhoef, G. 2021a. “Insurance and Wealth.” In Maritime Risk Management. Essays in the History of Marine Insurance, General Average and Sea Loan, edited by P. Hellwege, and G. Rossi, 17–34. Berlin: Duncker & Humbolt.Search in Google Scholar

Verhoef, G. 2021b. “The Management Discourse: Collective or Strategic Performance Drive?” Journal of Management History 27 (4): 415–39. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmh-01-2021-0001.Search in Google Scholar

Wickins, P. L. 1981. An Economic History of Africa. From Earliest Times to Partition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Received: 2022-09-07
Revised: 2022-10-04
Accepted: 2022-10-21
Published Online: 2022-11-07

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Harold D. Skipper Award-winning Paper of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association Conference in Shanghai, China
  3. The Impact of Product-Dependent Policyholder Risk Sensitivities in Life Insurance: Insights from Experiments and Model-Based Simulation Analyses
  4. 2022 Insurance History Conference in Basel, Switzerland
  5. Special Issue: History of Insurance in a Global Perspective: A Novel Research Agenda
  6. Economic and Environmental Conditions for the Diffusion of Insurance in Three Non-Euro-American Regions During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
  7. Marine Insurance in Early Modern Genoa (1564–1571): A Risk-Shifting or Risk-Sharing Tool?
  8. Who Do You Trust? Trust and Insurance Through Africa’s Past and Future
  9. The Risk of Natural Catastrophe in Early America: Perspectives from the Phoenix Assurance Company London and Nascent US Insurers
https://doi.org/10.1515/apjri-2022-0040
Keywords for this article
community; trust; risk sharing; income; middle-class culture

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Harold D. Skipper Award-winning Paper of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association Conference in Shanghai, China
  3. The Impact of Product-Dependent Policyholder Risk Sensitivities in Life Insurance: Insights from Experiments and Model-Based Simulation Analyses
  4. 2022 Insurance History Conference in Basel, Switzerland
  5. Special Issue: History of Insurance in a Global Perspective: A Novel Research Agenda
  6. Economic and Environmental Conditions for the Diffusion of Insurance in Three Non-Euro-American Regions During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
  7. Marine Insurance in Early Modern Genoa (1564–1571): A Risk-Shifting or Risk-Sharing Tool?
  8. Who Do You Trust? Trust and Insurance Through Africa’s Past and Future
  9. The Risk of Natural Catastrophe in Early America: Perspectives from the Phoenix Assurance Company London and Nascent US Insurers
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 15.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/apjri-2022-0040/pdf
Scroll to top button