AB Consultants hosted the first regional microinsurance conference in East Africa on April 6th and 7th 2016 at The Leopard Beach Hotel, Diani, South Coast. The conference followed a successful session held in Livingstone, Zambia in March 2015. The focus and intent was to bring microinsurance practitioners, enablers, government, regulators and technology partners together to exchange learnings and to gather experiences from different parts of the region. It brought together 89 participants and speakers representing 54 different organizations and from 13 countries i.e. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Swaziland and South Africa as well as India, Germany, UK and Switzerland.
The conference was organized by The Munich-re Foundation, The ILO’s Impact Insurance Facility and AB Consultants Limited with facilitation from Insurance Regulatory Authority of Kenya (IRA). It was also supported by the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI), African Insurance Organization (AIO), Making finance work for Africa, Microinsurance Network and Cenfri.
Key guests were Mr. Sammy Makove; CEO IRA Kenya, Dirk Reinhard; Vice Chairman Munich Re Foundation, Doubell Chamberlain; MD CENFRI among others.
Key topics discussed: Kenya microinsurance landscape, Are insurers delivering value, Health & Agriculture insurance, Strategy & business modelling, Successes & challenges in microinsurance, Technology & distribution, Enabling environment, Is SME insurance an emerging market, Developing effective consumer education models and Opportunities for growth of microinsurance in Africa.
Galla Dinner on the beach
Kenya was ideal to host this conference recognizing the country as a top global growth potential market for insurance. This potential has seen the entry of several international players over the last one year through acquisitions and new licensing. This is due to the growing market that has put the potential for microinsurance at approximately 13 million adults, mostly in the informal sector. The learning sessions gave the Kenyan market an opportunity to learn from its peers and to understand how various markets are dealing with the common challenges while learning from successful experiences such as in South Africa and Zambia.
