Insurance brokers have welcomed the initiative by the government to regulate the insurance brokerage sector.
The sector has however noted that such a law should not stifle its growth.
Association of Insurance Brokers of Kenya (AIBK) National Chairman who is also the President of the East African Insurance Breakers Association, Nelson Omollo says insurance brokers, who act as intermediaries, welcome and embrace the advent of the Insurance (Amendment) Act 2019, as a ‘legitimate disruption to our market’.
“We certainly appreciate and respect the component of Cash and Carry regime. Our discomfort with the new Act emanated from the criminalization of premium handling. However, I am happy to report that discussions are underway between AIBK and the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) to try to use different avenue in resolving the matter as opposed to pursuing purely legalistic or judicial procedures,” Omollo said.
In July, AIBK moved to court seeking to stop the implementation of the Insurance (Amendment) law, arguing that the amendments to the bill did not balance the rights of all industry players, frustrated government policy of growing insurance penetration and criminalized handling of premiums by insurance brokers.
“Brokers have been at pains to justify the rationale of our decision to go to court when we were granted the Conservatory Order, for temporarily Stay of the new Act,” Omollo said.
Omollo was speaking at the 14th Association of Insurance Brokers of Kenya Annual Regional Conference taking place in Mombasa under the theme “the role & impact of regulation in driving growth’.
Insurance brokers from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi attended the two-day conference which ended on Friday, November 8.
Some of the changes include:
Here is the comprehensive Insurance Amendment Bill_2019
Strategic Plan
During the conference, the Association launched the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan, the document that will provide road-map for AIBK’s board and management on a number of initiatives going forward for the next five years.
AIBK is the umbrella Professional Association for all Insurance Brokers in Kenya with a mandate to influence and lobby different players in the insurance sector on the creation of favourable operating laws, championing of consumer rights, development of insurance products as well as developing code of conduct for all insurance brokers.
In 2016, Omollo urged insurance brokers to embrace technology and internet-based solutions if they were to survive the bancassurance onslaught.
With changing times calling for revised strategies, Omollo added that any resistance to adopting new ways of doing business will mean a definite loss of tech-savvy clients.
