Bimanet Kenya: Your Only Income Protection and Insurance Benefits Club

By Soko Directory Team / Published November 23, 2017 | 5:45 am

The Kenyan insurance sector has for a long period of time struggled in the local market with low penetration levels, excessive duplication of products.

Increased capital requirements have also joined the list of factors leading to the slow growth of the sector following full adoption of a risk-based capital adequacy framework, as a result of the Insurance (Amendment) Act 2016.

Approximately 90 years since the establishment of the first Insurance company in Kenya, insurance penetration currently stands at a dismal 2.8 percent of GDP compared to the global average of 6.28 percent.

Issues ranging from lack of education, distrust of the insurance industry, the high cost of premiums, slow uptake of innovation, competing interests for limited resources and poor training of insurance distributors have been touted as some of the culprits for the poor performance by the insurance sector.

The Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) hopes to increase the penetration to 6 percent by the year 2020. To achieve this target, the industry is set to embark on a comprehensive campaign to educate the public about insurance and encourage them to embrace innovation and technology in this sector.

According to Cytonn Investments report on the Kenya Listed Insurance Sector H1’2017 Report, the slowdown of the growth of the insurance sector is attributable to a slowdown in private sector credit growth and reduced profit margins in the banking sector, following the capping of interest rates, and thus the insurance sector will be key to support contribution of the financial services to Kenya’s economic growth.

Insurance companies in Kenya have been affected adversely by the rising levels of inefficiency in their operations in the recent past, as the collection of premiums and distribution of products have emerged to be a costly affair for the insurers.

Insurance penetration remains low at 2.8 percent currently, lower than the average of 3.5% in Africa, indicating that for insurance companies to penetrate the Kenyan market they will need to invest in better and efficient distribution channels.

BimaNet Kenya Ltd, Africa’s first and only income protection and insurance benefits club is working with industry stakeholders to achieve this goal and surpass it. This new ‘Kid on the Block’ has repackaged Life insurance thereby making it more palatable and interesting to Kenyans who would not ordinarily purchase this product as a matter of course.

By harnessing the power of word of mouth advertising, the audacious team at BimaNet has also introduced an innovative model of distributing life insurance through networking marketing. Backed by state of the art technology, their Customer Referral Program provides an opportunity for anyone to plug into the system and build a lucrative business with a residual income component.

When a customer subscribes to BimaNet, their membership entitles them to a 5 in 1 package of insurance products comprising a life policy, critical illness, last expense, in hospital cash payout and personal accident rider benefits.

The club provides these benefits at a substantial discount of up to 75 percent, augments them with a Benevolent Fund that doubles the sums assured by the underwriter and pays cash back for no claims.

The company has negotiated a Group Life scheme with UAP- Old Mutual and Sanlam and they pass on these discounts to their individual members. BimaNet is also in discussions with several other underwriters who have the capacity to service the anticipated critical mass of members that the company is targeting through its comprehensive digital media awareness campaign.

BimaNet Kenya Ltd is principally a distribution channel for life insurance but the company is also working towards introducing a wider bouquet of products to this captive audience such as medical, motor vehicle, education policies, household to mention a few.

The BimaNet Kenya business model is a game changer in the Kenyan insurance sector; their entry into this market will undoubtedly safeguard more families from plunging into a financial crisis when disaster strikes.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system.Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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