Staff Writer
African Risk Capacity Limited chief executive officer of (ARC Ltd) Lesley Ndlovu has been named among the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader’s class of 2022.
Born in Filabusi, Matabeleland South, Ndlovu is an international financial services executive with experience in corporate finance, investment management and insurance and has worked in Bermuda, Singapore, France, United Kingdom and South Africa.
The Forum of Young Global Leaders was founded in 2005 by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, to help shape future leaders who are equipped to both take responsibility for creating a more sustainable and inclusive world, and to address its increasingly complex and interrelated challenges.
“The leaders celebrated today have demonstrated exceptional ingenuity and vision across their fields. While they represent diverse sectors, regions and issue areas, they are united in their commitment to lead towards a more inclusive and sustainable world,” said Mariah Levin, Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.
ARC Ltd is a hybrid mutual insurer and financial affiliate of the African Risk Capacity Group. The organisation provides parametric insurance services to African Union member states and farmer organisations, employing innovative financing mechanisms to pool disaster-related risk across Africa and transferring it to international risk markets.
“Insurance plays a critical role in transferring this risk away from the most vulnerable people to the global reinsurance markets such that when a drought happens, insurance claims can be quickly paid to the affected people to allow them to resume their economic activities with minimum disruption.
“This represents an extension of my work at the African Risk Capacity, where we are already the leading provider of weather related insurance on the African continent, working with both governments and the private sector.
“At ARC we are working to make insurance available, accessible and affordable for Africans, we are currently providing insurance to about 30 million Africans each year and our 5 year ambition to be covering 200 million people per year,” Ndlovu said.
“Insurance is a global industry; at the African Risk Capacity we reinsure the weather related risks from Africa into the global reinsurance markets. The support of the global markets is an important tenet of our strategy of increasing the number of people protected by insurance.
“Being a Young Global Leader will provide a platform to mainstream the specific needs of Africans in the global conversation and form alliances with like-minded people from all over the world,” he added.
Ndlovu becomes the fourth Zimbabwean to be put on the list after Mayur Patel (Chief Commercial Officer, M-KOPA), Vimbayi Kajese (Founder, #Adtags) and Arts and Sports minister, Kirsty Coventry.
