Insurance penetration in the country has dipped over the past one year even as Kenyans showed more interest in more insurance products. The country’s penetration rate pinged at just 2.37% down from a marginal 2.43% in 2018.
Cumulative Life Insurance Premiums grew to Kes 98 Billion shillings in 2019 from Kes 87.3 Billion shillings in 2018 representing a 12.1% growth according to the Association of Kenya Insurers Industry report for 2019.
The report by the Association of Kenya Insurers indicates that Gross Written Premium grew by 7.03% at Kes 231.3 Billion shillings up from Kes 216.11 Billion shillings in 2018.
In the 13 classes of non-life insurance excluding Micro-insurance, AKI says five of the classes performed above the overall non-life growth rate of 3.57% with Public Liability, Medical, Motor Private, PA, and WIBA all registering growth.
Four classes however had negative growth namely on Theft, Aviation, Engineering, and Marine. Under Claims and Benefits, Ordinary life claims contributed 33%, Group life 22.70% while Pensions contributed 44.33% of the total claims and benefits payable.
These figures come even as new capital requirements which are meant to reduce cases of insurers being unable to pay claims dent the public’s trust in insurers and may have contributed to the low penetration rate the country has recorded ountry.
Non-Life premium also registered a growth of 3.57% to Kes 133.45 Billion shillings from 129 Billion in the year under review.
