Insurance has become a necessity that we often can’t avoid because when it comes to health, to your home, to your mode of transport, to travelling and your most price possession insurance comes highly recommended. A growing phenomenon is InsurTech a subset of FinTech is the combination of insurance and technology, this is changing how consumers now interact with insurance as it is moving away from the traditional ways of selling insurance.
In this week’s OVAReact Podcast, we had the opportunity to sit and discuss this phenomenon with Eunice Maina, an author and founder of Bismart Insurance which is an InsureTech company in Kenya which is one of the very few of its kind. We got a chance to learn about her journey and got her views on whether insurance specifically in Kenya was ripe for disruption. She said she believed it was but the following three reasons are delaying the process:
1. Mutual Mistrust
Eunice stated that the challenges around the growth of insurance are the mistrust from the customer and the insurance company behaving as if they don’t trust the customer when putting through their claim. No one is ready to believe one another and therefore the customer fails to get the support they need, and the company doesn’t deliver on its promise according to the contract of how claims would be dealt with.
2. Lack of understanding
Eunice states that Insurance is already a complex product by its nature and people ignore the contract. So customers tend to trust the agent but perhaps the agent is only focused on selling the insurance and doesn’t have the customer’s interest at heart. So there is a gap around proper education on understanding policies and claims. If people understand, they will be able to select the right insurance for their needs.
3. Affordability
Insurance is not created to suit those who are not earning regularly or have odd jobs that vary in inconsistency. Eunice states say that affordability is more about the consistency to be able to pay for the insurance regularly.
In order for insurance to thrive and for a lot more Kenyans to invest in insurance the three need to be resolved for that to happen. To listen to the full podcast NOW STREAMING on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcast, Anchor FM and through Capital FM’s Kenya SoundCloud below. Remember to also tune live to Capital FM on Monday at 10.30 pm EAT for the new weekly episode.
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