From employment to employer

Whenever Peter Nduati's name is mentioned – even in social circles – everyone thinks of health insurance. Resolution Health, a health insurer that offers services within East Africa and beyond, is Nduati's brainchild.

However, not many know the journey that he (left) made to become an icon in the health insurance business. "When I came back to Kenya after graduating, I was absorbed immediately by an insurance company as a trainee student. I worked in the industry until 1997 when I felt I needed to go into self-employment," says Nduati, who had studied for his undergraduate at Punjab University in Chandigarh, India.

Nduati began crafting a business proposal. He conceptualised a health insurance business that would work for the needs of Kenyans. Meanwhile, he continued working at the insurance firm. For years, he improved on the proposal.
In 2003, he tendered his resignation, convinced financiers to give him capital and shortly after Resolution Health Kenya came into being. "There was a lot of nostalgia because many insurance businesses at the time were closing down. Some friends asked if I had lost my mind because I was moving in the direction others were fleeing. But the team that I began working with was dedicated to make it a success," he says.

Not only did Resolution Health survive through the turbulence of a bad economy; the company spread its wings beyond Kenyan boarders, first setting up shop in Tanzania before going further into Uganda, Sudan and Rwanda.
For a CEO who once ran a butchery business as a young man, it was incredible success to see an idea blossom into reality.