Browsing: insurance

English sea-faring merchants would pay banks to cover them in case of a shipwreck and if the ship returned safe from its journey the bank would keep the premiums.
A premium so paid covers the cost of insuring the individual and provides assurance to the insured that in the event of a loss he/she will be covered.…

Uganda’s insurance companies raised about $144.54 million in the second quarter of 2020 in gross written premiums, a 7 percent increase from about $133.9 million during the same period in 2019.

According to data from the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) showing performance of the insurance sector from April to June this year, indicates that across all sectors there was an increase in premiums despite the impacts of COVID-19 on economies.

General insurance is also known as non-life insurance registered a 3.4 percent increase in gross written premiums to about $93.9 million in 2020 from about $90.9 million in 2019.

Health membership organizations recorded $10 million in 2020 compared to $9.47 million in the same period in 2019.

Also Read: Taking a looking at Tanzania insurance industry

Life insurance, which has been growing exponentially, collected about $40.49 million in the second quarter of 2020, a 20 percent increase from 2019.

However, …

On March 15th this year the government announced a raft of measures to curb the pandemic brought about by COVID-19. Among the measures were that government employees and businesses were to be shut, a minimum number of people maintained and the rest to start working from home except for those providing essential services. 

 It is now five months down the line and the initial excitement that a new formula had been found of remote working from home has become a damper and many CEOs have realised it is not workable. During this time into a pandemic that rapidly reshaped how companies operate and which is nowhere in sight in ending, an increasing number of executives now say that remote work, while necessary for safety much of this year, is not their preferred long-term solution once the coronavirus crisis passes. 

Some companies had even vowed …

The Republic of South Sudan’s path to economic recovery has not been an easy one, however, the country’s 2017 decision to join the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) has been a positive step in the right direction.

ATI, a multilateral provider of investment and trade credit insurance, offers insurance against political and commercial risks, by attracting foreign direct investments into the region. 

In just a few short years, ATI’s support for the country is valued at over US$500 million.

Albert Rweyemamu, a Senior Underwriter at ATI, shed some light on the organisation’s work with South Sudan, which has largely focused on the oil/ gas and power generation sectors.

Since South Sudan became an ATI member country in 2017, how has your approach to the country changed? 

AR: Generally, ATI supports limited projects in non-member states as we cannot confer our Preferred Creditor Status (PCS), which offers protection against political …

NAIROBI, Kenya May 19 – APA Insurance, has launched an App for both its customers and agents in a bid to offer flexibility.

The APP dubbed ‘APA Insurance Happiness app’ will enable customers make fast and safe motor insurance purchases, renewals and report claims easily on their mobile devices anywhere and anytime. 

The new free app  will also provide up to date records of customers and also give location of their country wide partner garages in case of an accident.

The agent’s app will enable them to access a premium calculator, agent account management, pre-insurance inspection and renewal on the go, making them more effective and efficient when interacting with clients and potential clients. 

“The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent need to enforce social distancing has changed the way that we live, work and travel currently and has triggered a real drive across Kenya to shift from traditional channels to digital …

The Covid-19 world pandemic has disrupted our lives in a way most can only fantasize about. It has not spared any sector and some are even making a kill from it. Talk of the entrepreneurial spirit in this country!

The same cannot be said of the insurance sector, however. For starters the insurance industry has stated that Covid-19 is not coverable because it falls under pandemics which are an exclusion in a typical insurance cover. A pandemic has to be defined by World Health Organisation (WHO) as such for it to qualify as an exclusion in an insurance product. Few insurance policies cover pandemics despite the potential for disaster, because the risk is not well understood and also difficult to price. But going forward there is a huge interest from companies looking for protection against business interruption suggesting that pandemic policies are the next big thing in commercial insurance.

When …

While all the current talk in the insurance industry is everything about insurance penetration and how it is not happening in Kenya, an illegality continues to be perpetrated raising a very disturbing and pertinent question: could we be holding onto fake insurance certificates?

Legally as will be demonstrated below, certificates are supposed to be issued by insurance companies in Kenya and no other entity. Where they are issued by any other entity, then questions arise as to the legality of the whole exercise.

In The Official Gazette of The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya of November 14,1944 a Bill was proposed to make provision against Third Party Risks arising out of the use of Motor Vehicles.

Section 5, subsection (a) of the proposal states that the policy of insurance must be a policy which,

“is issued by a person who is approved by the Governor, by notice in the Gazette, …

East Africa’s life insurance business is experiencing an upward growth trend fuelled by the increasing demand for life products among the middle class.

According to a survey done by Deloitte, the Middle class is the largest class for the life insurance business while the motor and medical business classes are among the most loss-making businesses. It suggested that insurers look into other emerging business classes that have the potential for growth for them to diversify their business.

According to the survey group, life faces slower growth compared to other business classes within the life insurance mostly due to price wars that have been prevalent among the industry players.

The rising costs of fraud give the insurers the challenge of being unable to adequately price risks which have led to deteriorated returns to equity.

It is estimated that fraud accounts of the total cost of insurance premiums for Kenya are 25 …