Sheila Wristberg, Elijah Owusu Agyeman win big at the 2022 African Insurance

The Managing Director of iRisk Management Limited, Sheila Wristberg, has been recognized by the African Association of Young Insurance Professionals (YIPs Africa) and the African Insurance Organization (AIO) for her immense contributions to the growth and development of insurance on the continent.

Sheila was adjudged the First Runner-Up of the Next-Gen Insurance Award at the just-ended 2022 AIO General Assembly and Conference which was held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Also, during the same event that marked the 50th anniversary of the AIO, the General Manager of iRisk Management Limited, Elijah Owusu Agyeman, who has authored a book titled ‘Insurance Implications of Market Fires in Ghana,’ won a prize as the First Runner-Up for the AIO Book Award.

The book award recognizes people who have authored books to help create insurance awareness to curb the low penetration of insurance on the continent.
By this, the organization encourages practitioners within the sector to come out with some form of publication and awareness by way of books mainly on insurance, or insurance-related issues.

Speaking on how this recognition would make better her work, Sheila Wristberg explained that she would capitalize on the award to further promote her passion on getting more young professionals to play active roles in the sector.

“I enjoy what I do, insurance is all about risk management and helping people plan for their future. This was just an opportunity to showcase the work that has been done so far and to encourage other young professionals, especially women, to be innovative, professional, and participate actively in the insurance space and I think that was one of the selling points for me’’.



“I am an advocate for insurance – I’m passionate about insurance penetration and making insurance inclusive and accessible by all. It can be a game-changer especially for protecting the most vulnerable people and most volatile industries. Going forward, I will continue the advocacy by educating people on insurance and encouraging younger people to consider insurance as a career. Insurance penetration is less than 5% across Africa but our continent happens to have the most exposed economies and households, especially with respect to emerging risks like cyber risk and climate change risks. The role of insurance in mitigating these risks cannot be overemphasized. Through this award, I have been able to build good connections from other parts of the continent, and together, we are looking at collaborating across the different nations we represent to come up with more innovative solutions,” Sheila said.

On his part, Elijah Owusu Agyeman stated that “The major motivation was that anytime market fires occur, there are questions concerned individuals, organizations and members of the public ask as to what kind of support those affected would receive from the state. People also ask whether the affected market vendors had any form of insurance cover. In most instances, however, the majority of the responses are negative. But because there is no insurance cover, some lose their businesses to the fire, and some also go through a lot of stress to be able to bounce back in business’’.

“As a practitioner in the space, I thought it appropriate to research into the issue and come up with an insurance solution to the problem. The import of the book is to get the stakeholders (insurers, market vendors, and the government) deliberate and think through appropriate insurance solutions to counteract the negative consequences of market fires to the vendors and the economy as a whole.”

About iRisk Management Limited

iRisk Management is a wholly-owned Ghanaian insurance brokerage and risk management consulting firm incorporated in the year 2014. It is one of the leading insurance brokerage firms in Ghana.



Profile of Sheila Wristberg, iRisk Management Ltd MD

Sheila Wristberg is an insurance and risk management professional with over a decade’s experience in providing professional services to entities across industries in and outside Ghana. Her areas of expertise include insurance advisory, risk management, audit, and taxation.

She has experience in insurance and reinsurance having served as the Managing Director of iRisk Management Limited since 2018 and the Executive Director of iRisk Reinsurance Brokers since 2019. Prior to her career in insurance, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specializing in Tax Reporting and Strategy and the mining tax. She has grown the iRisk brand to become one of the leading insurance brokerage firms in Ghana.

Sheila is an executive member of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana (IBAG) and Vice- Treasurer of the Association. She sits on various committees within the insurance industry including the Finance and Digitization Committees of IBAG, and the National Insurance Commission Committee to host the International Inclusive Insurance Conference. She was an IBAG Representative on the joint GIZ Program for Sustainable Economic Development and is a trainer for IBAG member firms on Data Protection Act.

Ms. Wristberg is an advocate for inclusive insurance especially among millennials and has led iRisk to develop an insurance aggregator platform (GHCompare) which will be rolled out in the 3rd quarter of 2022. She is also an avid motorcyclist and has extended her advocacy to motorcycle groups in Ghana to insure their assets and lives. She actively uses social media to educate the public on insurance and speaks on several media platforms as part of her insurance advocacy.

She is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the ACCA-UK and the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA) Ghana and the Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana (CII). She holds a BSc. Business Administration from the University of Ghana where she graduated with first-class honors and a diploma in Insurance from the Ghana Insurance College and the Malta International Training Institute.



Profile of Elijah Owusu Agyeman

Elijah Owusu Agyeman is the General Manager of iRisk Management Limited.
Elijah has over a decade’s extensive work experience in the Ghanaian insurance industry, mainly in the areas of general insurance, life insurance as well as insurance brokerage, and risk management advisory services.

Elijah is a chartered insurer and an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) of the United Kingdom. He is also an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana (CIIG). Elijah holds an Advanced Diploma qualification (Adv Dip CILA, Property Commercial) from the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA), UK. He holds a Master of Arts (M.A) Degree in Ports and Shipping Administration from the Regional Maritime University. He is also a graduate of Executive Development – Principles and Practice of Risk Management from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

He pursued his bachelor's degree at the University of Ghana where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Administration (Insurance Option).

He has worked in various capacities in the insurance industry as a management trainee, senior marketing officer, sales manager, broker business manager, and general manager roles.

He has additionally gone through training in Negotiation Skills, Management Development Programme, Business Sustainability, and International Convention and Maritime Law.

Elijah has an insatiable passion for insurance education and awareness creation.