Barclays Africa Group Limited has today announced the appointment of Mr. William Maara as the Managing Director of Barclays Life Assurance Kenya Limited (BLAK), a new underwriter in the Kenyan market. Prior to joining BLAK, Mr. Maara, a Chartered Insurance professional, was the General Manager at AON Kenya where he was helping the company drive its strategic direction and product innovation for nine years.
The appointment follows the granting of a licence earlier this month by The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) allowing BLAK to set up a life insurance business. BLAK is a sister company to Barclays Bank of Kenya and although the former will use the latter’s network to sell its products, the two entities will be operated and managed independent of each other.
“Because Barclays is a long-standing financial services player in Kenya, there is a huge opportunity for us to leverage on our infrastructure and channels to take insurance products to our customers in all corners of Kenya. We are excited about the prospects presented by the industry in Kenya whose life-insurance market remains low despite concerted efforts by market players to spur penetration,” said Mr. Maara
Mr. Maara said the company plans to roll out its products within the month of April through an elaborate agency model using the bank’s branch network. BLAK will offer the family protection cover, education policy, Personal Accident covers and credit life products to lending institutions, plugging demand largely coming from the Kenya’s increasingly wealthier middle-class population.
Barclays Bank of Kenya was also recently granted a Banc-assurance license to operate the Barclays Insurance Agency Limited-a subsidiary of BBK-which will allow the bank to use its vast branch network to sell all insurance products through partnerships with insurance providers such as Barclays Life Kenya among others.
Commenting on the developments, Barclays Bank of Kenya Managing Director, Dr. Jeremy Awori said, “The granting of these two licenses by IRA provides us with a significant opportunity to roll out a host of insurance products and services offering us the opportunity to further boost insurance uptake in Kenya. The approval also means that we are the first underwriter in Kenya to roll out this model, leveraging our branch network to cross-sell insurance alongside bank products.”