Kenya’s insurance sector is increasingly turning its attention to the informal economy and underserved small businesses, signalling a shift across Africa as insurers seek to close the continent’s protection gap.
From new microinsurance subsidiaries to strategic partnerships with insurtechs, telcos and financial service providers, insurers are rethinking how to design, price and distribute products to populations that have historically remained outside the reach of conventional cover.
And as the recently released report shows, South Africa and Kenya have emerged as the leading destinations for insurtech investment in Africa, attracting a significant share of the roughly $300 million deployed across the continent in recent years.
The two markets accounted for the bulk of funding between 2021 and 2025, according to the African Insurtech Landscape 2026 report by AfricInvest Group.
“South Africa and Kenya are the continent’s most active insurtech markets. Both benefit from vibrant innovation ecosystems, higher insurance adoption and enabling regulatory frameworks and sandboxes that support productive partnerships,” said the report.
South Africa leads by a wide margin, raising $142 million over the five-year period, backed by large growth-stage deals and a mature insurance market. Kenya follows with $66 million, driven by mobile-based distribution and strong innovation infrastructure, while Nigeria ranks third with $54 million, largely focused on health insurance startups.
“Kenya’s position has been reinforced by the BimaLab accelerator and its regulatory sandbox, which have helped establish Nairobi as the continent’s insurtech innovation hub alongside Johannesburg and Lagos,” said the report.
“African insurtech startups are frontrunners in insurance bundled with financial services (through MFI and bank partnerships), in health insurance combined with wellness services, and in cross-border expansion.”
Other countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Rwanda, Egypt, Senegal, Mali, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ivory Coast and Morrocco have also gained traction, millions of dollars, with the broader market projected to grow from $92.9 billion in 2024 to $160.9 billion by 2033.
Recent partnerships in countries such as Kenya show that insurtechs are part of the partners that insurers are tapping into as markets shift towards tapping into the vast informal sector that defines African economies.
Jubilee Health Insurance recently teamed up with global insurtech bolttech to expand access to embedded health solutions, while CIC Group partnered with CARD Mutual Benefit Association (CARD MBA) to deepen microinsurance offerings targeted at low-income and informal sector customers.
The initiatives are about ensuring that insurance products meet people where they are, be it financially, technologically or culturally.
“Insurance is not about numbers; it is about people,” said Bente Krogmann, bolttech’s general manager for Africa, during the Jubilee partnership launch. Recounting a personal experience at a hospital discharge desk, she said many families face emotional and financial strain without adequate cover.
“Behind every number there is a person—a parent, a child, a partner who just wants to be okay when life is not okay,” she said. “That is the responsibility we carry as an industry.”
Krogmann extended her human-centred framing into product design, sharing that she had recently flown from Kenya to South Africa without travel insurance—not because she didn’t need it or couldn’t afford it, but because no insurer had attempted to sell it to her. She noted that this highlights one of the many opportunities the industry continues to miss, simply by failing to embrace partnerships.
“Nobody triggered me in that moment to get that travel insurance, right? But if somebody would have triggered that to me in that moment, I would likely have gotten it. That is a gap partnerships can address,” she said.
Kenya’s insurance industry is moving to disrupt the traditional insurance models, which are often characterised by complex terms, rigid premium schedules and lengthy onboarding processes. These are being reworked into simpler, flexible solutions as insurers embrace partnerships with firms such as Singapore-headquartered bolttech.
Krogmann was blunt about the need for simplicity: “The product in embedded protection has to be simple and easy to understand. If you cannot explain an insurance product in less than 30 seconds, you don’t have a product, especially in markets like Africa.”
Jubilee Health Insurance chief executive Njeri Jomo agreed, saying: “There is nothing as important as the convenience we give clients, being on their phone, within their tools, and meeting them where they are, rather than pushing them to buy insurance.”
“If they are shopping and have insurance with them, that’s good. If they purchase a device and insurance comes with it, then it becomes part and parcel of what they do. If they are buying a new home and insurance becomes part of that conversation, that is where we want to be. We do not want to create an ecosystem outside the normal way our customers live. We want to be part and parcel of their journey. That is what resilience means, supporting people as they go about their lives.”
Partnerships redefine distribution
The shift towards microinsurance is also redefining how insurers distribute products. Rather than relying solely on agents and brokers, firms are embedding insurance into everyday transactions through partnerships with non-traditional players.
Bolttech’s model, for instance, integrates insurance into ecosystems such as lending platforms, mobile services and travel bookings. This allows customers to access cover at the point of need, often with minimal friction.
“The question that keeps us awake at night is how do we bring the right product to the right person at the right time,” Krogmann said. “When you get that moment right, you have gold. If we are not making insurance relevant to the person at the right time, we are just shooting in the dark.”
This approach is gaining traction in Kenya, where mobile penetration and digital payment systems provide a strong foundation for embedded insurance. Safaricom, fintechs, lenders and e-commerce platforms are increasingly becoming conduits for insurance distribution.
At a panel discussion during the signing of partnership between Jubilee Health and bolttech, industry players emphasised that partnerships are becoming central to scaling access.
Jomo said one of the biggest challenges the market faces is financial awareness and financial education to the customers rather than just “throwing products at them.”
“You cannot sell an insurance product to a customer who’s not financially aware and also financially included. Financial literacy always goes ahead of insurance literacy. If you do not have something to protect, then you don’t protect it,” said Jomo.
“If you don’t have a television, you don’t buy a padlock … You don’t see the role for resilience if you haven’t quite understood what financial literacy is and the role of financial wellness.”
CIC’s collaboration with CARD MBA reflects a similar philosophy. The partnership leverages CARD’s extensive experience in microfinance and community-based distribution to design products tailored for low-income households.
Jaime Aristotle Alip, founder and chairman emeritus at CARD MRI, which is the largest mutual benefit insurer in the Philippines, highlighted the importance of aligning insurance with the realities of informal sector incomes.
“Microinsurance must be built around the cash flow of the customer,” he said. “If premiums are not aligned with how people earn, the product will not work.”
He said CARD MBA is now able to settle claims within four hours and has eliminated the need for loss adjusters as it moves to boost trust levels in microinsurance.
“Philippines is in the ring of fire. We are the most visited country in terms of typhoons. We are visited by 19 to 21 typhoons every year. You can imagine how difficult it is for our country, and therefore our microinsurance plays that very important role as a safety net. If there is a typhoon we are there in the field. We are the first responder, and we pay the claims right there in the field because that’s our mantra and that is what builds trust,” said Alip.
Flexible premiums, relevant products
Flexibility in premium payments is emerging as a defining feature of microinsurance in Kenya. Insurers are experimenting with daily, weekly and usage-based payment models to accommodate irregular income patterns.
Patrick Nyaga, CIC Insurance Group chief executive, said the industry must rethink its assumptions about affordability.
“The issue is not always that people cannot pay,” he noted. “It is that we have not designed products that fit how they earn and spend.”
This has prompted insurers to move away from annual lump-sum premiums towards more granular payment structures. Digital channels, particularly mobile money, are enabling these innovations by reducing transaction costs and improving collection efficiency.
The move for simpler products that resonate with customers was also emphasised by Jubilee’s Jomo, who said the market must deepen partnerships and develop products that mirror local needs.
“I feel very convinced that to date, we [Kenyan insurance industry] still do not know the right insurance product for the Kenyan consumer. A lot of our products are UK-based. A lot of our products still follow a lot of rules that are not typically accredited. But we cannot co-create unless we truly work with partners who already have a past with a customer,” she said.
Nelson Kuria, CIC Group chairman, stressed that the informal sector should no longer be treated as a peripheral market given its larger share in Kenya. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data showed the economy closed last year with 18.1 million jobs in the informal sector, being nearly 84% of the total 21.6 million jobs in the country.
“We must acknowledge one reality: that traditional insurance was never designed for the everyday lives of the predominant sector, the informal sector in Kenya and Africa, where incomes vary, businesses are small and financial needs are constantly evolving. This is the largest segment of our economy,” he said.
“If we get it right, we will not only grow the industry but also build resilience across households and businesses. If we are to close this protection gap, we must go beyond conventional models and develop insurance solutions that are simple, affordable, relevant and accessible to the people. This is the greatest opportunity before us as we partner with the best in class.”
During the same week, another insurer, Britam, introduced a new product to the market targeting the informal sector. Britam rolled out a low-cost medical insurance cover with monthly premiums starting from KES336 as it targets millions of domestic workers and informal sector players, many who have long depended on out-of-pocket spending for healthcare needs.
Britam Connect chief executive Evah Kimani said the product reflects the company’s commitment to designing insurance solutions around the everyday realities of underserved communities.
“For many domestic and informal workers, there is very little room for life’s disruptions. An illness, injury or even a few days away from work can quickly place pressure on household finances. This cover is anchored on holistic healthcare, bringing together outpatient and inpatient care, maternity, dental and optical benefits, as well as annual health check-ups,” she said.
Britam partnered with insurance broker Minet Kenya. Deputy director for commercial at Minet Kenya, Gideon Bii, said the partnership will ride on the broker’s distribution network and Britam’s underwriting capacity.
Insurers are also focusing on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which is another group that has for too long been left out by the conventional insurance products. SMEs face significant exposure to risks ranging from fire and theft to supply-chain disruptions, yet many remain uninsured or underinsured.
Insurers are now designing bundled products that combine multiple covers into affordable packages, often distributed through partnerships with lenders and trade associations.
Technology as an enabler
Initiatives such as the BimaLab accelerator and regulatory sandbox have helped position Nairobi as a key insurtech hub, attracting startups like CarePay, Pula, Turaco, Lami and ACRE Africa.
These firms are expanding access to insurance and also reshaping the value proposition through data-driven underwriting, digital claims processing and customer-centric design.
“Technology allows us to scale in ways that were not possible before,” said Jomo. “But it must be used to solve real problems for real people.”
The integration of insurance with other financial services is another emerging trend. Insurtech startups are increasingly bundling insurance with loans, savings products and wellness services, creating more holistic offerings.
However, insurance penetration in Kenya and across much of Africa continues to hover below 3% of GDP. For industry leaders, the challenge should be not just to increase this figure but to define what a realistic target should be, according to Jomo.
“We keep talking about [insurance penetration being] 3% in Kenya. Many times, I ask the question, what should it be? Will it ever be 30? Can it be 30? Can people really spend 30% of GDP on protection? We need to agree on what it should be so that as we set benchmarks on where we want to go, so we are clear on what that goal looks like,” said Jomo.
Rosemary Macharia, CIC Micro board chairperson, said insurers must rethink how they engage the informal sector if they are to remain relevant. She emphasised that understanding customers begins with deep immersion, not surface-level research. “If we have to understand our customers’ realities, then what must we do? The first thing that we must do is we must immerse ourselves in their realities,” she said.
Macharia explained that this goes beyond traditional market studies. “It is actually going down there … spending even a whole week or two, three days with them, working with a person from morning to evening to understand what is their daily activity, what is their life like,” she noted.
She added that informal sector players already manage risks in their own ways. “These people face risks on a daily basis, and they have ways that they meet these risks … they have survived without us,” she said.
Rather than approaching them as a market to exploit, she urged insurers to collaborate. “We should come in as partners … whatever solution we provide should mimic their realities.”
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