The Continental Reinsurance Holdings Limited Public Offer continues to build momentum as investors take a closer look at one of Africa’s leading pan-African reinsurers and the long-term growth opportunity presented by the continent’s insurance sector.

The Public Offer, which opened on 5 August 2026, gives both retail and institutional investors the opportunity to participate in the continued growth of a business that has spent more than four decades supporting insurance markets across Africa.

As the first reinsurer to seek a listing on the Botswana Stock Exchange, the transaction represents an important milestone for both Continental Reinsurance and Botswana’s capital markets.

The transaction comprises US$126.1 million relating to the acquisition of existing shares and US$30 million in fresh primary capital for the Group, representing total IPO proceeds of approximately US$156.1 million. The listing will strengthen Botswana’s position as a platform for pan-African financial services, with the Group’s Botswana-domiciled holding company accredited under the Botswana International Financial Services Centre framework. Following approval by the Botswana Stock Exchange of a revised offer timetable, the Public Offer now closes on 9 October 2026. Lawrence Mutsunge Nazare, Group Managing Director, said:

“The Public Offer gives investors an opportunity to understand our business, our markets and our future growth plans. Continental Re has spent more than 40 years helping insurers across Africa absorb risk, build resilience and support economic growth. Through this Public Offer, we are inviting investors to participate in the next phase of that journey.

The US$30 million in fresh primary capital will strengthen our underwriting capacity, support solvency and rating resilience, and help scale our Alternative Solutions business. It will also support our aspiration to strengthen our financial strength rating over time, positioning Continental Re to serve even more clients across the continent. We believe our disciplined underwriting, strong governance, pan-African footprint and long-term growth strategy provide a compelling investment proposition, and we look forward to welcoming new shareholders.”

A Business Built Across Africa

Continental Re provides composite reinsurance solutions to insurance companies across more than 50 African countries through six regional hubs in Gaborone, Lagos, Nairobi, Douala, Abidjan and Tunis. For more than four decades, the Group has helped insurers manage risk, strengthen resilience and respond when catastrophic events occur. Today, it serves more than 900 cedant, broker and counterparty relationships through a diversified portfolio spanning Property & Engineering, Casualty & Liability, Marine & Aviation, Energy & Political Risks, Agriculture and Life Insurance.

The Group’s differentiation lies not in balance-sheet scale but in its pan-African distribution network, four decades of market experience and proximity to cedants and brokers across multiple linguistic, regulatory and economic environments – competing on market knowledge, relevance and responsiveness rather than size alone

Growth Capital Going to Work

Proceeds from the Public Offer will support Continental Re’s next phase of growth by:

Strengthening the Group’s capital base.
Expanding its Alternative Solutions business.
Supporting its aspiration toward a stronger financial strength rating over time.
Supporting continued investment in technology and operational capability across Africa.
The Group’s Alternative Solutions business is a key part of this strategy. It uses Continental Re’s pan-African distribution and underwriting capabilities to originate and structure African risks for placement with highly rated global capacity – generating fee, commission and underwriting income in a capital-efficient way, without requiring the Group to retain all the associated risk on its own balance sheet.

Continental Reinsurance delivered another year of resilient financial performance, including:

Insurance revenue: BWP 2.32 billion (USD 173.1 million)
Gross written premium: BWP 2.27 billion (USD 165.6 million)
Profit before tax: BWP 105.3 million (USD 9.7 million), representing growth of more than 50% year-on-year
Loss ratio: 33%
Combined ratio: Improved to 92% (from approximately 94% in the prior year)
Financial strength rating: AM Best B+ (Stable Outlook), with balance-sheet strength assessed as Very Strong
The Board intends to distribute between 40% and 60% of annual net income as dividends, subject to future performance and Board approval.

Africa’s Reinsurance Opportunity

Africa’s reinsurance market generated approximately USD 6.3 billion in gross premiums in 2024, having grown by 89% between 2015 and 2024. Despite this growth, Africa accounts for only 1.6% of global reinsurance premiums. Insurance penetration across Africa remains approximately 2.8% of GDP, compared with a global average of around 6.8%, highlighting significant room for expansion.

Shares are available at BWP 1.00 per share, with a minimum application of 200 shares (BWP 200). Application forms are available through the Prospectus, via the Sponsoring Broker Motswedi Securities, the Botswana Stock Exchange, and Continental Reinsurance Holdings Limited offices, as well as online here.

The post Continental Reinsurance’s $156.1M Public Offer Highlights Africa’s Growth Story appeared first on Business Today NG.

If there was one thing that was obvious from Meta Connect this year, it’s that the social media giant is all-in on its burgeoning line of smart glasses.

Indeed, the glasses were pretty much everywhere at the annual event, where Meta shows off its newest hardware and AI products. Both Meta staff and the flocks of influencers who frequent the event seemed to arrive with the glasses glued to their faces. Most of the demos the company offered this week also involved the glasses.

I swiftly joined the bespectacled masses and found myself trying on pair after pair of Meta’s high-tech specs.

One of the more notable products I had an opportunity to demo were Meta’s new, still-unreleased, audio-only smart glasses. News of these glasses emerged not long after the company weathered accusations that it was selling “pervert glasses,” with critics alleging that its camera-equipped specs could be used for nefarious surveillance purposes.

The new glasses come equipped with six microphones, but no camera, and they have no native way to record your surroundings, which should go a long way toward easing privacy concerns. They are significantly lighter than any of the other smart glasses I’ve worn, and they were quite comfortable.

The Meta staffer I talked to emphasized the glasses’ entertainment and communication options: You can listen to music easily (they’re more comfortable than earbuds) and take phone calls without reaching for your phone.

The glasses will also integrate with Muse, Meta’s personal agentic system, which can carry out tasks on the user’s behalf. The new integration, which isn’t yet available to the public, lets wearers speak to Muse and give it commands verbally. Meta also plans to personalize the agent, letting users pick from an assortment of cute digital avatars that can represent the agent when it communicates with them.

I was given an opportunity to try this out, which was fun but also somewhat comical. You have to be very direct with the agent, and you can’t talk to anyone else at the same time or it will get confused. Problematically, I kept chatting intermittently with the Meta staffer who’d given me the glasses, and the agent kept thinking I was speaking to it, so it would talk over her.

Still, in the right context, it’s easy to see how this new integration could be incredibly useful. If you don’t mind being seen in public talking to your own sunglasses, you’ll be able to ask Muse to take care of various digital tasks for you, like sending emails or reciting to-do lists, and it will handle them while you’re out grocery shopping or having a beer. You can also ask the glasses anything, and like a mobile version of ChatGPT, they’ll spit out an answer. (I asked the glasses a question about World War II, and they gave me a succinct and historically accurate response.)

Finally, I also got to test-drive a second audio-only pair: Meta’s new glasses for the hearing impaired. Given that hearing loss affects many families (some 50 million Americans are said to have some level of hearing loss), this device, unlike a lot of other modern tech gadgets, serves a clear and practical purpose.

I spoke briefly with a member of Meta’s research team who said the glasses had been in development for about five years, and he pointed out a price difference that could make them appealing: Whereas a lot of hearing aids can run as high as $1,600, the glasses will sell for $150.

The experience of wearing these glasses was interesting. Meta had me put earplugs in before trying them on to simulate the hearing loss that the glasses are meant to help users overcome. Once the glasses were on, they seemed to amplify the voice of the person I was talking to. Users can switch the amplification from focused, which zeroes in on the person in front of them, to omnidirectional, which picks up sound from all around them, depending on how they want to experience their surroundings.

Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear that he believes smart glasses are the future, and it’s evident that his company is doing its best to fulfill that vision. But smart glasses remain a niche that has yet to truly find its footing. What was most obvious at Connect is that Meta has — in an attempt to succeed where others have failed — cast a very wide net, trying to make its glasses stylish, functional, and, most of all, useful.

Is this the future? Unsurprisingly, everyone at Connect seemed to think so. I suppose we’ll have to see if the rest of the world follows suit.

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