From 3–6 May 2026, Sun City (North West) hosted the 5th Annual MUKFIN Underwriters’ Conference & Masterclass, convening insurance and reinsurance professionals around a single question: how do underwriters make faster, higher-confidence decisions as risk becomes more complex and technology more powerful? Anchored by the theme “The Data-Driven Underwriter: Mastering Big Data, Quantum Computing & AI in Modern Underwriting and Exploring Innovative Insurance Solutions to Cyber Risks,” the event welcomed 80+ delegates, around double the previous year, and blended strategic thought leadership with practical masterclasses to strengthen judgement, pricing confidence and innovation.

Opening the programme, Tony Van Niekerk’s “Joining the Dots: Emerging risks, technology shifts and leadership choices shaping insurance” reframed reinsurance as a board-level lever: reinsurance is strategy, not procurement. He warned that conflict creates claims, through supply-chain disruption, repair-cost inflation, business interruption, political violence, contractual liabilities and currency pressure, and that brokers often see the headline but miss the claim. The implication for buyers and underwriters was practical: advisers must act as translators of real-world volatility into structures, wordings and scenarios that hold under stress. In his closing challenge, strategy is no longer about predicting the future, it is about building organisations that can “win across multiple futures.”

From that strategic frame, the focus shifted to capability. Nyimpini Mabunda’s keynote, “The AI-Ready Leader: Building Fluency in the New AI-Driven Insurance World,” opened with an AI-created podcast segment (no studio or production team), making the adoption message tangible: AI is already everywhere and accelerating. In his fireside interview, MUKFIN CEO Simba Mukonzo captured the stance delegates were urged to take: “The opportunities presented by AI far outweigh the fears, we need to lean in, not hold back.” Mabunda offered a simple leadership playbook, the 5 E’s (Expose, Experiment, Educate, Embed, Evaluate) and ended with a call to action: don’t freeze or run, “dance with the thing you fear,” and ask, “What would you do if you were not afraid?”

The masterclass then translated the theme into day-to-day underwriting decisions. Patrick Loweh (Senior Manager, W-Safe Re; President, YIPs Africa) described the African reality: data gaps, urgent timelines and pricing pressure mean the goal is not simply to be data-driven, but data-informed, moving from instinct to structure through disciplined decision models, stronger data discipline, portfolio thinking and underwriting governance. Building on that foundation, Mulenga Kashiwa (Senior Manager, Technical Underwriting, Hollard Insurance) showed how AI and machine learning can augment the craft, moving from automation to predictive modelling, including NLP to unlock unstructured submissions and models that strengthen risk selection and fraud detection without replacing underwriter judgement.

The day concluded with Tich Mushambadope (Commissioner, Securities & Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe) demystifying quantum computing and its long-term implications for complex risk modelling, portfolio optimisation and cyber security. For many delegates it was entirely new terrain, and it became the top-voted request for deeper training in future seminars.

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