African Risk Capacity Ltd.

Founded in 2014, the African Risk Capacity Limited (ARC Ltd.) is a hybrid mutual insurer and financial affiliate of the African Risk Capacity Group. The organisation provides parametric insurance services to AU Member States and farmer organisations, employing innovative financing mechanisms to pool disaster-related risk across Africa and transferring it to international risk markets. In so doing, it improves the continent’s response to climate-related disasters and contributes to resilience building and ultimately to food security. Efforts are ongoing to ensure the ARC product portfolio is reflective of the needs of Member States and provides progressive solutions to weather-related disasters. ARC Ltd. was established with a specific commercial mandate as a Class 2 mutual insurance company with seed capital funding. Its membership is by African Governments comprising of countries who have taken up a policy in any particular year, as well as capital contributors. It is seeded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and Germany’s KfW through BMZ. It will eventually be wholly owned by African sovereigns. ARC Ltd. carries out commercial insurance functions of risk pooling and risk transfer in accordance with national regulations for parametric weather insurance in Bermuda (where it is located until such time that an equally favourable legal and regulatory regime exists in an AU Member State). By transferring the burden of natural disaster risks away from governments and their populations, the organisation facilitates a more deliberated response approach to disasters. It disburses financing to fund pre-approved contingency plans to respond rapidly and predictably to disasters.