Sanlam Kenya eyes marine insurance growth ahead of new regulations

Financial services provider Sanlam Kenya has confirmed its readiness to retain a share of the Kshs. 30 Billion Marine Cargo insurance market by providing specialist maritime general insurance covers.

This comes ahead of the new Marine Cargo Insurance (MCI) regulations seeking to place marine business exclusively with locally registered insurance underwriters which take effect early next year.

The regulation will help unlock the largely untapped local MCI market with a projected Kshs 30 Billion value annually.

Through its general insurance subsidiary Sanlam General Insurance, the firm will continue providing value added risk covers for local and multinational clients importing or exporting products.

Riding on Sanlam’s digital innovation promise, the product will also be available via a digital platform providing ease of transacting and further enhancing Sanlam Kenya’s distribution capacity.

Sanlam Kenya Group CEO, Mugo Kibati on said the local firm will be tapping on Sanlam Group’s century old technical experience and financial muscle to deliver a superior marine insurance cover for its clients.

The firm, Kibati said is well equipped and up to the technical task of carrying marine cargo insurance including fuel oil, bulk grains and motor vehicles among others.

Sanlam Kenya’s enhanced association with the Sanlam Group – Africa’s largest non-bank financial services business – provides the firm with the added flexibility and technical capacity to provide an enhanced range of specialist risk solutions including marine and related import export cargo risk coverage.

“In conjunction with Santam Marine, the largest marine insurer in Africa, at Sanlam Kenya we are very well placed to insure a wide range of marine risks thourgh Sanlam General Insurance, our general insurance subsidiary,” Kibati said,

The continued expansion of cargo holding facilities at the Kilindini harbour by KPA, Kibati noted, will continue to boost the growth of the local economy. Such efforts, he said will also continue to spur the need for specialist value added services such marine and related portside risk solutions.

“The transformational initiatives undertaken by KPA including the recent commissioning of the 550,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent units (TEU) container terminal are laudable efforts. At Sanlam Kenya, we are proud to be associated with KPA’s ongoing efforts to facilitate national development,” Mugo said.

The move, he acknowledged, will provide immense benefits to the local insurance industry that has been losing heavily as imports into Kenya continue to be on a Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) basis instead of Cost and Freight (CFR) basis which will allow local insurers to pick the insurance component. Such a development will be beneficial to Kenyan importers who under the current practice have limited recourse if anything happens to their imports before they arrive in the country.