CIC turns focus on marine cargo cover

CIC Insurance Group is now turning its attention to the lucrative marine cargo cover for a bigger piece of the pie ahead of the rollout of new policy guidelines to boost participation of local insurers in the segment dominated by foreign firms.

CIC Insurance on Friday unveiled a new web-based portal dedicated to marine cargo targeting insurance intermediaries, including brokers and agents.

“Currently, 90 per cent of imports are insured in the country they originate from. We already do marine insurance but we have not been doing it in as big a way as this opportunity portends. We want to be in the forefront as this new area of growth opens up,” said CIC Insurance Group CEO Tom Gitogo.

Bolstered by imports

Mr Gitogo said the new push had been bolstered by imports into Kenya, which have been on an upward trend in recent years and a legal push by government for local players to penetrate the segment.

Statistics show Kenya imports goods worth Sh1.57 trillion annually, with 90 per cent of this being insured with offshore providers.

The imports are expected to hit between Sh2 trillion and Sh2.2 trillion by 2020, yielding potential marine cargo insurance spend of over Sh30 billion annually in premiums.

“The insurance premiums that this level of growth visits on local companies here is tremendous,” said Mr Gitogo.

The National Treasury bolstered the role of local insurers in the segment this year when Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, in his 2016/2017 budget statement, outlined measures to help grow the penetration of local players by making sure imports into Kenya are on cost and freight basis only.

The measures also prohibited placement of marine insurance in the hands of foreign insurers except in rare circumstances.