Kenyan insurers are redesigning products and distribution models to tap the country’s large informal sector, with flexible premiums, digital platforms and embedded insurance emerging as key strategies to expand coverage.
The shift comes as conventional insurance products, which often require fixed and regular premium payments, struggle to reach workers whose incomes fluctuate from day to day.
The National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2025-2028 identified irregular incomes among informal workers as a major barrier to insurance access, alongside affordability and limited understanding of insurance products.
Insurers including CIC, Britam and Jubilee are responding by moving towards products that allow customers to pay in smaller amounts and access cover through platforms they already use.
Data by the Insurance Regulatory Authority shows that the industry last year welcomed 99 products that were either new or repackaged, with part of them targeted at the informal sector. In the first quarter of this year, 28 more were added.
The push reflects the size of the opportunity. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data showed the economy closed last year with 18.1 million jobs in the informal sector, being nearly 84 percent of the total 21.6 million jobs in the country.
For instance, Britam, through its microinsurance business Britam Connect, has been developing embedded and pay-as-you-go products targeting low-income households, gig workers and small businesses.
The insurer recently rolled out cover with premiums of as low as Sh11 a day to target informal sector workers. The product adds to others such as personal accident cover for ride-hailing drivers, with premiums structured around individual transactions as opposed to conventional annual payments.
Jubilee Health Insurance recently teamed up with the African unit of Singapore-headquartered insurtech, bolttech, to start distributing health policies through partner platforms such as banks, petrol stations, retailers and digital marketplaces.
The increasing focus on low-cost policies, which are often bundled with everyday services such as mobile airtime or agricultural inputs, is making insurance affordable and relevant to informal sector workers.
The embedded insurance model integrates insurance coverage directly into the purchase of a non-insurance product or service such as shopping and air ticket booking, allowing customers to seamlessly buy tailored packages.
“We are making it easier for customers to access relevant and affordable health insurance through platforms they already trust. This partnership enables us to scale faster, innovate smarter, and most importantly, extend health protection to communities that have historically been underserved,” said Njeri Jomo, CEO at Jubilee Health.
CIC Insurance Group, through its micro-insurance unit called CIC Impact, recently partnered with the Philippines’ CARD Mutual Benefit Association (CARD MBA), aiming to roll out new products and tweak existing ones targeting the informal sector.
“If we are to close this protection gap, we must go beyond conventional models and develop insurance solutions that are simple, affordable, relevant, and accessible to the people. This is the greatest opportunity before us,” said Nelson Kuria, chairman at CIC Group during the partnership launch.
The product changes now extend beyond payment frequency to how insurance is designed and communicated.
The Insurance Regulatory Authority’s microinsurance framework has also helped create room for more targeted products, while the entry of specialised players is increasing competition in the segment.
The innovative products, which mostly target the informal sector, have so far attracted six micro insurers—APA Microinsurance, Birdview Microinsurance, Britam Microinsurance Kenya, CIC Microinsurance, Star Discover Microinsurance and Turaco Microinsurance.
For instance, Turaco’s ASA LifeCare embeds insurance into the microfinance loan process. The embedded insurance model is helping reduce the cost and complexity associated with conventional agent-based models.
Conventional insurers are also partnering with insurtechs to increase the focus on the informal sector in a country where insurance penetration is below three percent.
Some of the insurtechs operating in Kenya are CarePay, PULA, Lami, Bluewave, Kakbima, Vooli Insurtech Limited, ACRE Africa, Incourage and PesaKit, with a recent AfricInvest report showing they have attracted Sh8.54 billion ($66 million) in venture funding over the past five years.
