Majority of Rwandans currently have no access to any form of insurance. This is the case in many other parts of Africa. Experts partly attribute this to the sector’s failure to adopt technology.
According to the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), insurance penetration in Rwanda currently stands at 1.6 per cent, way below the Africa average rate of 3 per cent.
Accelerated adoption of technology is seen as a step in the right direction, experts say.
That is because technology has power to ensure efficient delivery of insurance products and services and enable companies to onboard more people, thus raising the uptake of insurance.
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Just like mobile phones have made it possible for people to easily transact and pay for services, Carole Karema Jenni, the General Manager of IT and Business at Equity Bank, believes that technology can serve the same purpose in the delivery of insurance services.
"Insurance companies collect a lot of data from their clients manually. This presents an opportunity for companies to leverage this data to automate processes, making it possible to introduce innovative services,” she said.
There is also a need to raise awareness about the value of insurance. This, coupled with affordable products and services, Karema is convinced that it would drive the uptake of insurance.
"You need to make insurance services and products affordable and accessible so that majority of people can access them. The most innovative way out of this is to digitize,” she noted.
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One potential area that technology can disrupt is claims settlement. Currently, it takes longer for insurance companies to settle claims. This, to a certain extent, has discouraged people to buy insurance products.
"We believe that deploying technology can expedite and simplify claims settlement and deepen insurance penetration,” Innocent Habarurema, the Managing Director of Prime Life Insurance, said.
Prime Life Insurance is one of the insurance companies that has started digitizing its underwriting services, sales, and commercial business in addition to claims settlement.
"We have already integrated technology in our operations. For instance, we settle claims for our clients through a web-based platform and enable people to access certain services via mobile phones,” Habarurema explained.
Sheila Kirika, the Actuarial Manager at Old Mutual Limited, underscored the role that partnerships between private insurers and the government can play.
"The government has proven that they can roll out insurance, at least we see this with the success of Mutuelle de Sante which more than 80% of Rwandans currently access. We build on the network that the government has built and deliver insurance products,” she said.