Thursday 02 / January / 2025
Muscat: The insurance sector's contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Sultanate of Oman reached 1.23 percent at the end of 2022, Abdullah bin Salem Al Salmi, CEO of the Capital Market Authority (CMA), said.
“The sector's total direct premiums increased by 12.8 percent to reach OMR541.30 million at the end of 2022 compared to OMR479.90 million at the end of 2021,” he added.
In his introductory speech to the annual statistical book on insurance market indicators in the Sultanate of Oman for the year 2022, he further pointed out that: “Insurance premium data indicate that health insurance accounted for 35 percent of the total direct written premiums, while the vehicle insurance branch in its two parts: comprehensive insurance and third party insurance accounted for It is 19.68 percent of the total volume of premiums.”
He explained that the audited financial statements for the year 2022 indicate that the complementary insurance premiums increased by 7.7 percent, as the total direct premiums for Takaful insurance amounted to OMR76.30 million and accounted for 14 percent of the total direct premiums for the year 2022 and 13 percent of the total paid compensation. During the same year, premiums collected from insurance broker companies amounted to 46.8 percent.
The total capital of insurance companies amounted to about OMR297.90 million in 2022 compared to OMR274.66 million in 2021, an increase of 8.46 percent. The capital of national companies amounted to about OMR145.69 million in 2022 compared to OMR125.36 million in 2021, an increase of 16.22 percent.
The capital of foreign insurance companies amounted to about OMR152.20 million in 2022 compared to OMR149.31 million in 2021, achieving an increase of 1.94 percent.
The audited financial statements of insurance companies showed an increase in the total assets of insurance companies in the year 2022 by 11.6 percent reaching about OMR1.33 billion, of which OMR875 million related to general insurance, OMR228 million to life insurance, OMR233.10 million to health insurance.
The total investments of insurance companies at the end of the year 2022 amounted to about 831.92 million, of which OMR563.86 million were the investments of national insurance companies, and OMR268.60 million was the investments of foreign insurance companies, compared to about OMR681.96 million the end of the year 2021.
The total direct premiums of Takaful insurance companies operating in the Sultanate of Oman increased by 7.7 percent, to reach about OMR 76.25 million in 2022 compared to OMR70.77 million in 2021, representing 14 percent of the total direct premiums of insurance companies.
The data further indicates that the number of workers in the sector reached 3,176 at the end of 2022, of which 2,648 were Omani workers distributed in various administrative and technical positions in companies, brokers and insurance agents. They constitute a percentage of 83.4 percent of the number of workers in the sector. In national and foreign insurance companies, it amounted to 83.7 percent and 84.8 percent, respectively, while that percentage reached about 93.6 percent in insurance agents.
The audited financial statements during the period from 2018 to 2022 indicate a growth of direct premiums by 3.8 percent, paid compensations by 1.9 percent, and an increase in the number of issued documents by 4 percent.
