FIJI’S insurance industry recorded a gross premium income of $476million in 2024, an “all time high” according to the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF), which released its 2024 Insurance Annual
Report yesterday following its tabling in Parliament on Monday by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Professor Biman Prasad.
The industry however also experienced a $30m decline in combined profitability during the year, blamed on an increase in total outgoings and net claims paid during the period.
“The Fijian insurance industry continued to remain resilient noting an all-time high level of gross premiums of $476.0 million, supported by the growth in the Fijian economy in 2024,” RBF Governor Ariff Ali said in his foreword to the report.
RBF is the regulatory oversight authority of Fiji’s insurance industry, which includes general and life insurers.
“Assets of the domestic insurance industry grew over the year by 7.5 percent to $2.9 billion, with the industry’s combined solvency surplus position increasing by 22.6 per cent to $688.5m,” Mr Ali stated.
“While there was a notable absence of severe catastrophic events during 2024, licensed insurers still reported an increased level of net claims and policy payments of $254.2m, with the life insurance sector paying out $139.3m in net policy payments mostly for matured policies, while the general insurance sector paid $114.9m mostly for medical and motor vehicle claims.”
Mr Ali stated that RBF continued to modernise its regulatory framework with the ongoing review of the Insurance Act 1998 and further work would ensure the smooth transition of local insurers to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standard 17 (IFRS 17), which deals with insurance contracts and planned for adoption in Fiji in January next year.
RBF has also become actively involved with other partners in the establishment of a parametric micro insurance sector in Fiji.
“As part of its initiatives with development partners to provide climate-vulnerable households access to climate risk insurance products, the Reserve Bank had signed a grant agreement with InsuResilience Solutions Fund in August 2024, that has enabled the introduction of new and scaling up of existing climate risk parametric insurance products in Fiji,” Mr Ali said.
The Fijian insurance industry is expected to maintain its positive performance in 2025, he said.
He cautioned however that this will be against an outlook that remains vulnerable to increasing volume and cost of claims arising from climate-related volatility as well as growing instability and interconnectedness of world economies elevating geopolitical risk, a critical factor for insurers to price, model and manage.
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Note: This article was first published under the headline: 2024 a mixed year for insurance in Page 13 of the print version of The Fiji Times dated Wednesday, October 1, 2025
