Insurers want regulator to weed out quacks

Nairobi; Kenya: Insurance agents want the industry’s regulator, the Insurance Regulation Authority (IRA) to bring sanity to the sector by cracking down on unregistered operators. Through their umbrella body, Bima Intermediaries Association of Kenya (BIA), the insurers claim their business is under threat because of a few unscrupulous operators who are unrecognised by the regulator.

Speaking in Bungoma County over the weekend, after a meeting with insurance agents from Western Kenya region, BIA Kenya Chairman Washington Ndegea said the quacks are giving licensed operators a bad name. “There are about 4,288 insurance agents licensed by IRA in Kenya. But we have more than 10,000 operators in the industry, which means more than half of the people in the sector are operating illegally,” said Mr Ndegea.