British American has revamped its network of branches by refurbishing and expanding 8 branches and opening additional 4 new ones in the country. This aggressive branch expansion exercise is part of the company’s expansion plans and a fulfillment of its ambition to taking insurance and asset management closer to the public.

Speaking to the media at the launch of British American’s Barclays Plaza Branch, Nicholas Ashford-Hodges Chairman of the Board of Directors, British American Investment Company Kenya Ltd said, “We promised the public that we shall open branches throughout the country. It’s an honor to be back to fulfill this promise. These new and refurbished branches will help us offer better services to customers and improve our distribution channels.

British American raised approximately Kshs 3.5 Billion last year from the Initial Public Offer of shares and will utilize some of the funds for a branch expansion programme as well as refurbishing old ones. The refurbishment process has begun in branches such as Am Bank, Eldoret, Kisumu, Embu, Nyeri, Westlands, Timau and Phoenix house which is ongoing at the moment

British-American Investment Company Limited has grown tremendously in the last 47 years. It has evolved from a home service life insurance company to a diversified financial services group with composite insurance businesses and asset management business. Benson Wairegi - Group Managing Director, British American Investment Company Limited expressed confidence that this branch expansion will go a long way in deepening the uptake of insurance and asset management services to the people of Kenya where the product penetration is only standing a 2% which is still very small compared to South Africa which is about 9.94% or Malaysia which has an estimated 41% of the population covered by some form of life insurance.

According to a research commissioned by Association of Kenya Insurers’ (AKI), the low uptake of insurance among the Kenyan population has been partly a result of limited channels to sell insurance products. The research pointed out that Kenyan insurance industry has been relying heavily on agents and brokers to sell insurance products. Since the agent and broker led channels have failed to achieve significant penetration of insurance; there is need for the insurance industry players to adopt new and more efficient channels. “this notwithstanding , the insurance sector has registered a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 16% for the last 6 years and this itself attests to the resilience and vibrancy of the sector and this year a number of added Wairegi

British American will open additional four more branches in Bungoma,  Machakos , Muranga and Nairobi as well as  take advantage of industry advances such as bancassurance  and micro insurance.