By Nicholas Nduati
The Insurance Regulatory Authority is banking on the introduction of insurance courses in schools under the new education curriculum as well as ongoing efforts to demystify underwriting to grow penetration to 10 percent over the next decade.
Insurance penetration has remained low at the current 2.8 percent due to low awareness and less appealing products.
The uptake of insurance in the country still remains low despite steps taken by underwriters to woo more Kenyans.
Things are not however very gloom since the industry is recording growth albeit at a slower pace.
During the first three months of this year, industry premiums grew 14.4 percent, mainly driven by life assurance that rose 24.8 percent while general insurance which had a 9.6 percent growth.
However, underwriters incurred more losses from general insurance that had a loss ratio of 65.1 percent, up from 64.2 percent recorded a year ago.
Total insurance premiums during the first three months of the year stood at 63.21 billion shillings with insurance penetration remaining at 2.8 percent.
According to Kiptum, since implementation of the marine insurance directive that imported cargo be underwritten locally, insurers have received one billion shillings in premiums.
He says IRA is undertaking a risk based supervision model to cushion the sector from cases of fraud.