Senior Underwriting Officer at African Reinsurance Corporation

Duties / Job Details
The incumbent will carry out the following functions:

• Reviewing and underwriting individual risks for designated markets/clients, with recommendations to supervisor, in line with the Corporation’s underwriting guidelines.
• Growing of premiums from the designated markets/clients – top and bottom-line growth. This involves chasing for new businesses and pushing for increased shares on renewable businesses.
• Pricing of risks and preparation of quotations to cedants/brokers.
• Preparation (and presentation during WARO monthly meetings) of unit’s performance reports(monthly/quarterly) or other from Business Objects reporting module. Compliance with reporting deadlines is paramount.
• Accurate processing of premiums in SICS reinsurance system.
• Maintenance of online facultative business documents file register.
• Assistance in negotiation of facultative business contract terms/conditions with brokers/clients and making recommendations for supervisor approval.
• Building strategic partnerships with key brokers/retrocessionares/cedants for placement of special and mega risks.
• Conducting marketing activities for designated markets/clients to build client relationships and source for new businesses as well as maintaining reports.
• Preparation of renewal notices for facultative businesses and forwarding the same to cedants/brokers to achieve a 99% renewal retention for existing businesses.
• Assisting the finance team on reconciliation issues of cedants/brokers and chasing for outstanding balances whilst also ensuring timely remittance of amount due to them.
• Chasing for statements for closed businesses and ensuring the outstanding closings report is updated for future follow up.
• Manage and ensure risks are within the corporation’s underwriting capacity and liaising / retroceding risks that exceed the capacity to A rated securities for top line growth.
• Timely and accurate processing of Retro premiums and ensuring that finance remits them on time to the Retrocessionaires or brokers.
• Prompt response to customer requests per recommended turnaround times in the internal Service Level Agreements
• Ensuring all the special treaties/facultative contracts are processed in the SICs reinsurance system and the cover notes/slips/wordings are signed timeously and sent out to cedants and brokers.
• Training of clients and subordinates to build competencies.
• Carrying out any other roles assigned on ad-hoc basis within the regional office.
• Applicants must also be Nationals of member States of Africa Re

Academic Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent in Insurance/Engineering or /relevant field
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant practical work experience in Non - Life Underwriting department (specifically underwriting of special classes – Energy, Oil, Gas & Aviation in addition to the traditional classes of insurance) or Reinsurance in the Insurance and/or Reinsurance industry.
• Professional qualifications in insurance will be an added advantage.
• Relevant Working Exposure in a Multicultural Environment will also be an added advantage.
• Relevant Working Exposure in a Multicultural Environment will be an added advantage.

Main Competencies:
Competencies and Additional Requirements:

• Strong technical knowledge and experience in all the classes of non-life insurance business. (underwriting).
• Competencies in Underwriting of Energy, Oil, Gas and Aviation classes of business is paramount.
• Good knowledge and exposure to insurance and reinsurance markets.
• Practical knowledge of all types of reinsurance treaty and facultative arrangements.
• Very good knowledge of facultative business contract wordings and clauses.
• Stakeholder management skills particularly with key re/insurance partners such as reinsurance brokers and retrocessionaires.
• In-depth knowledge of appropriate insurance and reinsurance principles practices and laws as applicable to different lines of business.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication.
• Capacity for analyzing, synthesizing and reasoning.
• Negotiation and presentation skills.
• Problem-solving abilities with strong decision-making capability.
• Keen attention to detail with an ability to retain strategic direction.
• Ability to work with tight deadlines and handle volumes efficiently.
• Ability to work without close supervision and within established timeframes.
• Good use of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook) and knowledge of integrated business-related software will be an added advantage.
• Practical knowledge of SICs reinsurance management system will be an added advantage.
• Ability to train subordinates.

Additional Requirements:
Applicants must also be:

• Fluent in English and/or French and having a working knowledge in the second language shall be an added advantage.

Salary & Benefits
The successful candidate shall have the following benefits:

• Competitive Basic Salary on the Corporation’s Support Staff Grade Level.
• Variable Pay (Annual Performance Bonus).
• Joint contribution to the Provident Fund (7% of the basic salary paid by staff and 14% by the Employer).
• Children's Education Subsidy for each child up to 26 years (maximum 4 children).
• Medical Cover for staff and family.
• Housing Allowance.
• Dependency Allowance.
• Transport Allowance
• Inflation Adjustment (Cost of Living Allowance), which may increase or decrease depending on the economic situation, is paid in local currency.