A new agreement between the Lebanese Credit Insurer (LCI) and Nigeria’s IGI Group aims to better serve Africa with credit insurance, GTR has learnt.

The agreement, with the largest insurance company in Nigeria and the largest underwriter in West Africa, will enable LCI to offer cover in eight countries in the region including Ghana and Uganda: economies that “are doing quite well”, according to managing director at LCI, Karim Nasrallah.

Speaking with GTR during the International Factors Group (IFG) annual meeting in Malta this week, Nasrallah said that “the African continent is really underserved in terms of credit insurance.”

“There is credit insurance coverage of exports to Africa, but there is little credit insurance availability within the continent itself,” he added.

Nasrallah believes that a large Lebanese business community in West Africa will provide a platform from which LCI can expand into Africa. “In terms of the approach to Africa, the logic in the first instance is to serve the Lebanese customers there before moving on to other opportunities,” he told GTR. “Lebanese have been doing business in the region for generations now, and our aim is to serve that community.”