Kenya's insurance industry gears up to offer marine insurance

Kenya's insurance players said on Thursday that they have completed preparations to offer marine insurance to all imports beginning on January 1, 2017.

Steven Oluoch, CEO of ICEA Lion General Insurance, told an investor forum in Nairobi that Kenyan insurers have the capability to insure any volume of cargo coming into the country.

"Locally we have the technical capacity to produce a marine policy as good as any in the international market," Oluoch said during the launch of the ICEA Lion Online marine portal.

ICEA Lion alone has standby capacity to cover up to 16 million U.S. dollars per single shipment.

In June 2016, the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury Henry Rotich directed that all imports be insured locally from the beginning of next year.

Kenya's Insurance Act requires that imports be insured locally but it was not enforced due to lack of inter-agency collaboration.

Last year, the marine insurance contributed an estimated 29 million dollars to the approximately 1.57 billion dollar insurance industry.

Oluoch said Kenya will save approximately 250 million dollars annually if all imports are insured locally.

"The new directive on marine insurance will also be beneficial to Kenya importers who currently have limited recourse if anything happens to their cargo before it arrives in the country," the CEO said.

The Kenya Revenue Authority is also expected to be a great beneficiary due to increased tax revenue from corporate and premium taxes. Endit