Contribution of the Insurance Sector to Economic Growth in the DRC[Contribution du secteur d'assurance à la croissance économique en RDC]

The objective of this study was to assess the contribution of insurance penetration to economic growth in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the period 2000-2023 (quarterly) using the Vector Error Correction (VEC) model. The results revealed that, in the short term, insurance premiums have no effect on the economic growth of the DRC. However, in the long term, insurance premiums positively impact economic growth in the DRC, along with the positive contributions of the workforce as a moderating factor in the development of the insurance sector, as indicated by the results of the Granger causality test. The estimation of the Interrupted Time Series Analysis (ITSA) assessed the impact of the liberalization of the insurance sector on economic growth. The results showed no significant effect, supported by the variance decomposition of real GDP forecasts, which indicated that the insurance sector contributes minimally to economic growth in the DRC, with only a 0.27% contribution. These findings raise several concerns; despite the liberalization of the insurance sector and the increase in insurance premiums, the penetration rate and insurance density remain very low. A poorly designed insurance market, even with liberalization, can only partially mitigate risks or lead to behaviors that reduce the effectiveness of risk transfer.