Features
Insurance for MSMEs: Meeting the needs of an underserved market
Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) account for 90% of businesses and are a source of more than 50% of employment worldwide. Yet for many MSMEs in developing countries, despite being vulnerable to risks that could impact their very livelihoods, very few have insurance and the knock-on implications on this underserved market can be extremely severe.
It is often the case that many MSMEs simply do not know about insurance and how to access it, or its place in their risk mitigation strategies, and the importance of insurers finding ways to overcome the current distribution and product relevance obstacles for this vital sector was a hot topic at the MiN’s June Member Meeting.
Using carbon farming to improve smallholder farmers’ climate resilience
Smallholder farmers are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and there is an urgent need to develop affordable insurance solutions given the extremely low insurance penetration rates within this community.
Despite significant efforts to promote various agricultural insurance products and services, many initiatives have struggled to scale after launching successful pilot schemes. In this article, we explore the ground-breaking work being done by the insurtech, Etherisc, which uses blockchain technology to make the purchase of insurance more efficient, enabling lower operational costs, and increasing transparency of insurance compared with many traditional operations.
MiN, Members & Partners: Upcoming Events
- IDF-MiN Country workshop: Inclusive insurance in the Philippines | 3-4 August 2023 | Virtually & in-person in Manila, Philippines | Register now
- FIDES: 38th Hemispheric Insurance Conference | 24-26 September 2023 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Get your tickets
- ADA: Innovators' Village (African Microfinance Week / Semaine africaine de la microfinance (SAM 2023)) | 19-20 October 2023 | Lomé, Togo | Submit your application by 31 July
- ILO’s Impact Insurance Academy | 20–24 November 2023 | Application deadline: 20 September
MiN, Members & Partners: News, Blogs & Resources
- MiN’s Best Practice Group for Climate Change and Food Security (currently Building the resilience of smallholder farmers BPG) | Briefing paper: Climate change and index insurance. How can the insurance industry respond to the challenge?
- Nicolas Morales’ (MiN) interview with más Seguros on Microinsurance Network’s objectives, its role in Latin America & prospects of the microinsurance market in the LATAM region
- AB Consultants is rebranding to AB Entheos Ltd.
- e-MFP: Financial Inclusion Compass 2023 | Complete the survey by 7 August 2023
- Inmedical, MIC Global, Democrance, MicroNsure, Radiant, Guardian Life Insurance Limited, Inclusivity Solutions, Milvik BIMA and Blue Marble among the top 40 Inclusive Insurance Companies Utilising Insurtech Innovations
Jobs, Internships & RFPs
- Ada: Programme Officer – Access to basic services (FR) | Programme Officer - Financing Young Entrepreneurs (FR) | Technical Advisor – Agricultural value chains and MSME finance Rwanda | Technical Advisor for the “Inclusive Green Finance in Burkina Faso” project (FR)
- African Risk Capacity: Head of Finance and Administrative Services | Johannesburg (ZA) & Abidjan (IC) | Apply by 9 August 2023
- AXA Emerging Customers: Partnerships, Regulatory Affairs & Entity Relationship Manager
- Blue Marble: Business Development Associate, Blue Marble Micro | European time-zone, remote working
Elsewhere in the sector…
- Insurance Brokers explore takaful microinsurance
- Microinsurance Market Projected to Hit USD 147.6 Billion at a 6.20% CAGR by 2032 - Report by Market Research Future (MRFR)
- Micro-insurance products increase on uptake of health, farming covers
- Tanzania launches consortium to boost agriculture insurance for its farmers