Fire, medical and motor premiums cut insurance losses
Kenyans seeking medical, motor and industrial fire cover drove up insurance company premiums last year that helped cushion the industry reducing underwriting losses by half.
Latest industry data shows medical premiums rose by 32.5 percent to kes54.8 billion, motor also went up by double digit to Kes53.8 billion while fire premiums hit Kes17.6 billion.
The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) report for the fourth quarter 2022 attributes the growth to the continued economic recovery from the negative effect of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021.
The entire industry collected Kes309 billion last year in premiums up from Kes276 billion which helped insurers cut underwriting losses from Kes6.3 billion to Kes3.7 billion.
The lower underwriting losses coupled with investment income saw the industry post a profit of Kes9.8 billion last year, a 72.5 percent improvement.
Long term insurance business premiums grew by 13.8 percent to Kes140.84 billion compared to Kes123.71 billion in 2021.
General Insurance which controls 54.5 percent of premiums in the market saw companies collect Kes168.9 billion almost half of which was collected by just six top companies.
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Among the six top firms, Old Mutual maintained top spot as the leader with 8.8 percent of premiums market share while APA Insurance climbed second overtaking GA insurance that now ties with CIC insurance with 8.2 percent of the premiums market.
Britam maintained its market share even as Jubilee Insurance lost ground slipping from 6.3 percent of the premiums market share to 5.3 percent.
Insurance companies sought to increase cash collections to meet the 10.7 percent increase in claims that topped Kes77.6 billion last year.
Motor claims were the most at Kes37.3 billion ahead of medical’s Kes32.5 billion claims taking up over 60 percent of the premiums collected under these two classes underscoring the high level of outflows from these two leading business contributors.
“Medical, motor private and motor commercial had the highest amounts of paid claims at 43.5 percent, 24.9 percent and 21.9 percent respectively of total industry paid claims under general insurance business. The three classes jointly constituted 90.3 percent of all claims paid by general insurers,” Godfrey Kiptum, IRA Commissioner-General said in the fourth quarter report.
Fire the third largest source of business on the other hand registered only Kes1.5 billion in claims or just 8.5 percent of the premiums collected by companies in this sector.
