Airtel Kenya banks on new insurance product to up subscriber base

Airtel Kenya has entered into a partnership that will see its subscribers get three insurance covers for using as little as Sh250 airtime a month. Airtel hopes to expand its subscriber base and bottom-line with this product.

The Airtel insurance product will be offered by Airtel Kenya, Pan Africa Life Assurance Limited and MicroEnsure. Airtel subscribers will get life, accident and hospitalisation covers depending on the airtime they will have used in the previous month.

Airtel will provide technology, MicroEnsure will take care of the process while Pan Africa will underwrite the cover. The product is open to all Kenyans aged between 18 and 65 years.

Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youseffi

"We looked at the market and asked ourselves: What can we do to be aggressive in the market? That is when we decided to come up with this product," Airtel Kenya CEO Adil El Youseffi, said at the launch of the product yesterday.

MicroEnsure CEO Stephen Kamanda said the product was meant to offer reprieve to close to 12.6 million Kenyans in the informal sector who do not have any form of insurance. The sector has a very low insurance penetration," he said.

However, he said new opportunities to increase penetration lie in mobile phones. Mobile penetration stands at 79 per cent.

"Compare 79 per cent and 3.5 per cent of insurance penetration. We need to embed products in mobile phones. There are opportunities to merge mobile technology and innovation with insurance services," said Kamanda.