Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) , whose mandate is to regulate, supervise and develop the insurance industry , showed positive outcome in the released report for the second quarter of 2015.
Some of the activities that IRA take to develop insurance industry in Kenya include Executive Certificate of Proficiency which is aimed to train potential agents. In 2015, the training was in Murang’a from 8th June to 20th June 2015 where there were 116 participants who were trained to become agents.
Kenindia Assurance Company , Jubilee Insurance Company, Resolution Insurance Kenya, Old mutual Insurance Kenya , CIC Life Insurance and Pioneer Assurance filed new/ repackaged products namely shopkeepers policy , smart trader, motor private and motor commercial and SME policy and Domstic package, Education and investment product , Guarantee fund and Mavuno plan respectively.
The demand for life and non-life insurance products continues to rise as households join middle income class and as market for project risk coverage grows with ongoing investments such as oil exploration, expansion of power generation, modernization of the railway network and the road network as well as the Lamu Port Southern Sudan Ethiopia Transport(LAPSSET) Corridor.
The industry premiums showed an increase of 15.3% that is an increase from KES 76.64 billion in second quarter of 2014 to KES 88.38 billion in 2015. This was brought about by an aggregate of life insurance premium that was 29.74 billion and general business premiums that was KES 58.64 billion, an increase of 17.9% and 14.1% respectively. Non-life insurance accounted for 66.4% of the total premiums by the end of June 2015.
The reinsurance companies reported a 30% increase of premiums to KES 9.27 from KES 7.11 reported in second quarter of 2014. General business accounted for 87% of the gross premium income for reinsurers.
Claims under general insurance were KES 24.3 billion during the period which was a 19.9% increase. There were no reported claims for life insurance for the period. Total policy benefits under life business amounted to KES 14.76 billion during the period which was an 11% increase from quarter 2 of 2014.
Underwriting expenses included business acquisition costs and expenses of management. The commissions paid by the insurers during the period under analysis amounted to KES 5.25 billion compared to 4.72 billion reported in quarter two of 2014. There was an increase of management expenses by 15% to KES 16.12 billion from KES 14.02billion reported in second quarter of 2014.
Investor’s equity , comprising of paid up share capital of KES 32.93 billion, retained earnings of KES 45.59 billion and other reserves of KES 38.82 billion, showed a 7.6% increase from KES 109.00 billion in the second quarter of 2014 to KES 117.33 billion in the period under analysis.
Assets showed a growth of 16.1% to KES 455.47 billion at the end of June from KES 392.20 billion at the end of June 2014. Liabilities were KES 338.13 during the period.
Total investments which are 82.0% of the industry’s total assets showed a growth of 17.1% to KES 373.53 billion from KES 318.89 billion. 64.3% of total investments were under life insurance which amounted to KES 240.17 billion and KES 133.36 billion in general business investments ( 35.7% of total investments for the industry)