Kenyan insurer CIC intends to expand into regional market
The Standard, 8 May 2010
The Co-operative Insurance Company of Kenya Ltd (CIC) has announced plans to expand into the region joining a number of local firms scrambling for a piece of the market. CIC said it intends to have a presence in Malawi, Tanzania and Southern Sudan in the next two years.
The firm will also partner with players in the cooperative movement in the markets. "We are working on modalities of how to expand into the region in the course of the next one or two years," said Nelson Kuria, the managing director.
"We are in discussions with the Malawian co-operative movement that wants to have co-operative insurance entrenched in their operations. Tanzania is another target which is large but with poor insurance penetration," he said.
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Germany promotes microinsurance for greater security in developing countries
German Information Centre New Delhi, 5 May 2010
At the invitation of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), representatives of development policy, financial supervision and the insurance industry met in Berlin on Monday, 3rd May, to discuss the further spread of microinsurance.
Parliamentary State Secretary in the BMZ, Gudrun Kopp, opened the conference 'Enabling Microinsurance' by saying, "Anyone losing their livelihood in a developing country – for example as a result of natural disasters or an accident – currently cannot hope for any financial support. Microinsurance products help poor people to secure their livelihood, often at low premiums. Our concern today is to work together to make such insurance products accessible to more people. For me, microinsurance is an example of modern and efficient development policy." The BMZ would include the results of the discussions in the current G20 negotiations.
In 2009 at Pittsburgh, G20 leaders committed to improving access to financial services for the poor by establishing the G20 Financial Inclusion Expert Group. Its subgroup 'Access through Innovation' is working towards identifying and describing lessons on innovative approaches to providing financial services to the poor; promoting successful regulatory, supervisory and policy approaches; and elaborating principles on financial access, financial literacy, and consumer protection.
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Microinsurance: The ugly duckling in financial services
Next Billion, 27 April 2010
This article explores the reasons why microinsurance has so far been the neglected financial service.
Being poor means not only surviving with a tight budget, but also managing the unpredictability of an irregular income. Coping with such variability is a fundamental challenge that is often overlooked by financial service providers in low-income markets.
This state of affairs is made worse when poor households suffer external shocks like the death of a family member, natural disasters or health emergencies. The poor's inability to mitigate risk often forces them to sell their assets, take on high-interest loans, or exhaust their savings.
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