Roads, railways, ports, data centres, housing, and power: Africa's construction pipeline has never been larger, and neither has the volume of construction insurance being placed to support it. Contractor's all-risk is now among the fastest-growing lines in several African markets, and the buyers are getting more sophisticated.
Insurance as a bidding advantage
On major tenders, employers increasingly scrutinise a contractor's insurance arrangements as part of technical evaluation. A contractor who can demonstrate a well-structured annual open cover, with clear terms for plant, third-party liability, and defects liability periods, simply scores better than one who buys project policies ad hoc. We have seen insurance move from a compliance line item to a differentiator in bid rooms.
Where claims actually come from
The loss data is consistent across markets: water damage during construction, collapse during excavation and temporary works, fire in the fit-out phase, and theft of materials and plant. Most of these are engineering and site-discipline issues before they are insurance issues, which is why OLEA pairs placement with risk engineering surveys. Premiums follow loss records, and a contractor who invests in site risk management earns it back at every renewal.
Structuring for the defects period and beyond
The most common gap we find in African construction programs is the handover boundary: cover that ends at practical completion, leaving the defects liability period thin or entirely uninsured, and no bridge to the operational property program. Our construction and engineering practice designs programs that follow the asset through its whole life, from ground-breaking to operations.
If your pipeline for the next three years is bigger than the last three, your insurance program should look different too.