Tell us about yourself as a professional. Do you have a special interest or area of expertise,
unusual background or experience, or a topic or skill you’re working to get better at?
Over the last ten years, I have built a rewarding career in insurance and risk management in Ghana, West Africa. I have taken on various roles, from broking, underwriting, physical risk inspection, and facultative reinsurance placement. Much of my time has been spent figuring out how to assess risks, provide mitigation measures to minimize losses, and underwrite coverages based on risk exposures and insurance needs of clients.
What drew me to this career field in 2015 was the blend of science and creativity in risk management, which I have truly enjoyed so far. I studied Political Science as my first degree to pursue a career in law. I joined a local insurer to undertake the compulsory one-year national service to serve my nation. That was when I fell in love with insurance and changed my career aspiration from law.
To develop my technical knowledge, I pursued the Chartered Insurance and Risk Manager designation with the Chartered Insurance Institute, UK, which I completed in 2021. In October 2022, I had a scholarship to study both ARM and CPCU. I completed both designations in eight months. To learn more about Marine Insurance, I took a course in 2024 to study the Advanced Professional Diploma in Maritime Insurance and Shipping Law with the Lloyds Maritime Institute, UK.
Since 2018, I have published over 35 articles, both print and online. Due to the passion to train, mentor, and educate local underwriters, I was awarded the “Professional Underwriter of the Year – 2022” by the Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana. At Activa International Insurance, I was awarded the "Shining Star" in 2023 and 2024 consecutively, due to my underwriting and facultative reinsurance placements support across different departments, branches, and even other subsidiaries in Liberia and Sierra Leon.
Why are you passionate about working in insurance and/or risk management?
What drew me to this career field in 2015 was the blend of science and creativity in risk management, which I have truly enjoyed so far. From the start of my career, I found the problem-solving side of underwriting captivating. I enjoyed spotting and assessing potential risks, whether they came from a complicated commercial property or a unique liability exposure.
I spend most of my time figuring out how to assess risks, provide risk mitigation solutions and loss control measures to prevent or minimize losses, and underwrite insurance coverages based on the risk exposures and insurance needs of clients. My hands-on experiences have not only strengthened my knowledge but have also inspired me to transition from a practitioner underwriter to a more strategic loss control position.
In West Africa, technology in insurance and risk assessment is not common. Local insurers are not actually investing in technologies and predictive analytics. With emerging technologies, I have become so passionate about how I can use predictive analytics to analyze risk and approach underwriting, including how to use live data to build risk models that are both accurate and flexible. I truly believe these are the areas where insurance and risk management can see some remarkable advancement in the West African insurance market.
As the market continues to lose talent to the West, I am passionate about being an agent of training and mentoring more young professionals as the older professionals prepare to retire.
How have you grown or been challenged this year and how has that impacted your work in the risk management and insurance industry?
2025 had been a challenging year, especially when I needed a higher level of advancement. Ending 2024 was a bit frustrating in my career. At one point, I had to leave the insurance industry because of promotion issues with my employer, and no local insurer wanted to work with me as well. I remember going for a couple of interviews, and I was told that technically, I was the best candidate, but my knowledge and qualifications were a threat to some managers, so they had given the opportunity to another person.
In all, I kept learning, publishing articles, and sharing knowledge with other insurance and risk management professionals on LinkedIn and other local insurance platforms. I had the opportunity to assume a role as Corporate Insurance Officer for a local conglomerate with eleven subsidiaries, including utilities, construction, transport and logistics, storage and warehousing, and real estate. I was responsible for overseeing all insurance programs from non-life, life, and health insurance for all the subsidiaries.
In April 2025, the Ghana office of Willis Towers Watson contacted me to join their team because they needed an experienced professional with technical expertise to oversee the local technical and underwriting functions. Because of my passion for technical underwriting and the fact that Willis Towers Watson is an international brokerage firm where there is the opportunity to learn, especially on foreign businesses that were placed locally for multinational companies operating in Ghana, I accepted the offer to join the international broker.
With continuous learning and development, both internal and external, I review and recommend numerous policy coverages based on the unique risk exposures and insurance needs of clients. One project I have been championing in 2025 is the personalization of policy coverage for individual clients, instead of the general and traditional coverage practice locally.
How has your involvement in the CPCU Society benefitted you this year?
I have learned a lot of things in my involvement with the Society. I joined most of the webinars organized through my membership benefits. I have learned a lot from webinars with topics focused leadership, mentorship, career advancement, technology, Artificial Intelligence, loss control, and others. I also had an article was published in the Spring 2025 and Fall 2025 editions of Insights.
Being involved with the Book Club under the Professional Growth and Development Interest Group Committee, I have learned a lot. A big thank you to Kelly McAnally and all involved in putting the book club on. As a member of the Underwriting Interest Group (UIG) and the Risk Management and Loss Control Interest Group Committee, I have also learned a lot, especially on emerging risks and technology in underwriting.
This year, I have greatly benefited from international mentorship with Heather Blevins. She calls me at the end of every month to check on my career goals and how I am progressing to achieve them.
This is all because of my involvement in the CPCU Society.
In your opinion, what’s the best thing about being a CPCU Society member?
The best things about being a CPCU Society Member are:
- Free access to online Continuous Professional Development courses
- Free access to online webinars
- Learning new things from other foreign markets and industries
- Career development pathways
- Sharing of knowledge and expertise from other professionals on INteract
Tell us about something you enjoy outside of work, a cause you support, a hobby, family activity,
or anything else that is important to you.
Outside work, I do a lot of online reading on insurance and risk management issues around the world. I do a lot of research and write articles for my online blog. I also write and share information on insurance and risk management on LinkedIn and other local insurance online platforms to educate other professionals.
Outside work, I do things that will educate myself, other professionals, and the general public on insurance and risk management. This is because reading is my hobby, and I am unmarried
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gideon-sarfo
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