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Microinsurance
ILO's Microinsurance Innovation Facility Annual Report (2012)
As one of the ILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility’s official partners Cenfri is pleased to announce the release of the Microinsurance Innovation Facility's 2012 Annual Report.
The ILO's Microinsurance Innovation Facility and Cenfri have partnered to achieve the common objective of increasing the availability of better insurance products to a greater number of low-income households on the African continent. The Facility's Annual Report contributes to this by documenting the learnings from existing microinsurance activities, which will help to understand the success factors necessary for the development of valuable microinsurance products
The Microinsurance Innovation Facility's 2012 annual report is organized as follows:
- Part 1 summarizes the Facility’s 2012 accomplishments and thoughts on their next phase of operation, beginning in 2014
- Part 2 describes microinsurance development and the experiences of the Facility’s partners across the world
- Part 3 presents lessons and new findings in microinsurance that were generated by the Facility’s partners
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The Annexes list:
- Facility’s innovation grantees and strategic partners (Annex I)
- knowledge products (Annex II)
- capacity-building activities (Annex III)
Please click here to download the Facility's 2012 Annual Report (PDF, 4.5MB)
Tanzania Access to Insurance Diagnostic
Cenfri recently released the Tanzania Access to Insurance Diagnostic study on behalf of FinMark Trust. The study was funded as partnership between Financial Sector Deepening Trust Tanzania (FSDT) and FinMark Trust, with the support of the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA).
The study comprises a series of 8 documents consisting of one headline findings summary document and seven input documents, each focusing on a specific thematic area, that build up the evidence base to headline findings.
The series was designed so that readers can focus on the Headline Findings document, drawing on specific input documents for the evidence base and as per their area of interest.
Please click here to download Document 1: Headline findings (PDF, 1.10MB)
Click read more below to access the main Tanzania Access to Insurance Diagnostic homepage with the complete list of documents
Kenya microinsurance landscape: Market and regulatory analysis (2010)
"If only 1 million M-PESA users and 1 million Kenyans with bank accounts who are currently uninsured buy insurance through these channels, market size will increase by more than three-fold from 3% to 10% of Kenyan adults."
This is just one of the many opportunities and findings from the recently completed Cenfri study, commissioned by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) of Kenya and funded by the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Financial Sector Deepening Trust Kenya (FSDK) to consider the opportunities and challenges to microinsurance development in Kenya.
Review of Mzansi and Zimele product standards (2011)
Insurance usage in South Africa has for a long time been out of reach of the majority of the low-income population. For instance, in 2004, the FinScope survey of financial services usage reported that only 13% of the country’s low-income population (in South Africa, this income category is referred to as LSM 1 - 5) had at least one long-term insurance product. For the short-term side, the usage figure for the same income category was estimated at less than 1%. To address this and as a consequence of the Financial Sector Charter, the insurance industry embarked on a set of initiatives whose aim was to increase insurance usage among the low-income black population in South Africa. A key aspect of the initiative was the development and implementation of voluntary product standards that would ensure the delivery of appropriate products that met the specific insurance needs of LSM 1 – 5. To this end, the Mzansi and Zimele product standards were launched in 2006 and 2007 respectively by the short-term and long-term insurance industries. In addition, the Association of Collective Investments also embarked on a similar initiative to increase the level savings in the low-income space through the development of the Fundisa education savings product. This study, therefore, aims to review the performance of these industry initiatives in enhancing access to insurance and savings products within the low-income population in South Africa. This project was funded by the South Africa Insurance Association (SAIA), Old Mutual and the FinMark Trust.
Funeral insurance (2011)
Cenfri prepared a paper on funeral insurance as input to the forthcoming second edition of the Microinsurance Compendium. It considers the demand for funeral insurance and the unique supply and distribution characteristics thereof in a number of countries, as well as the consumer vulnerabilities typically related to funeral insurance and how it can be overcome. The paper has also been published as ILO Microinsurance Innovation Facility Microinsurance Paper no. 10.
Opportunities for insurance inclusion in Nigeria (2011)
Cenfri was commissioned by Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA) to explore the potential in the Nigerian insurance market using data from the EFInA Access to Financial (A2F) Services in Nigeria 2008 and 2010 survey. The study aims to demonstrate the market opportunities to insurance companies and other market practitioners.
Cenfri staff presented findings of this study at EFInA's Innovation Forum in Lagos, 22 September 2011.
Swaziland microinsurance review (2011)
Cenfri was commissioned by the insurance regulator in Swaziland, the Registrar of Insurance and Retirement Funds (RIRF), to conduct a demand, supply and regulatory study for the potential of microinsurance development in the country. The study forms part of a series of Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) studies that assess the potential for microinsurance development across many developing and emerging economies.
The findings of the study were presented at a stakeholder workshop in Manzini, Swaziland on 22ndJune 2011.
The diagnostic included focus group discussion facilitated by Corporate Research Consulting (CRC) with funded from the FinMark Trust.
Update on microinsurance innovation in Brazil (2011)
These case studies on microinsurance innovation in Brazil forms part of a series of case studies on alternative, innovative microinsurance distribution models prepared for the International Labour Organization’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility. These case studies are focused on retailer, utility and telecomunications distribution of microinsurance. The first case study covers the partnerships between Mapfre, an insurance company, and Casas Bahia and Vivo, a white-label goods retailer company and mobile phone operator. The second case study covers two partnerships, brokered by AON Affinity Brokers, between QBE and Brasil Telecom and ACE and utility company AES Eletropaulo.
Update on microinsurance innovation in South Africa (2010)
South Africa has one of the most innovative insurance markets in the world. It is also considered one of the leading microinsurance jurisdictions. Commercial insurers have reached significant penetration in the low-income market, albeit largely through funeral and credit life insurance.
The FinMark Trust therefore commissioned Cenfri to provide an update on innovative micoinsurance models and products and the broad lessons emanating from their innovation experiences. Cenfri produced a synthesis note, considers the cross-cutting lessons which can be drawn from the above four case studies’ successes and failures.
Update on microinsurance innovation in Colombia (2011)
This case study on microinsurance innovation in Colombia forms part of a series of case studies on alternative, innovative microinsurance distribution models prepared for the International Labour Organization’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility. The case study covers three channels, namely the partnership between Codensa, an electricity utility company, and the insurance company Mapfre; the model developed by the Carrefour supermarket chain with insurer Colseguros; and the partnership between the gas utility company Gas Natural and the insurance companies Chartis and Alico.
Towards new typologies for microinsurance intermediation (2007)
Distribution is one of the key challenges in extending microinsurance to the low-income market. Traditionally, insurance distribution is either via brokers or agents or, in the low-income space, on a compulsory sales basis on the back of credit. More recently, commercial insurers have started to employ other, alternative distribution channels striving to find efficient distribution models that are suited to the unique challenges of the low-income market.This document reviews a variety of microinsurance models in South Africa and explores the nature of microinsurance intermediary models and how this impacts on its ability to achieve take-up and ensure informed decisions by consumers.
Cenfri team members participated in this 2007 Genesis Analytics study that took the first steps to extend the traditional intermediation typologies beyond the MFI and compulsory sales space. It draws on a 2006 study commissioned by the FinMark Trust to consider the microinsurance intermediation landscape in South Africa and the opportunities and challenges (market and regulatory alike) in unlocking the low-income market (click here to read more about this).
Towards a strategy for microinsurance development in Zambia: Market and regulatory analysis (2009)
Cenfri, in collaboration with Yoseph Aseffa, has recently completed a study commissioned by the ILO/UNCDF and FinMark Trust to consider the opportunities and challenges to microinsurance development in Zambia.
- Click here to download the final report (PDF: 1.8MB)
- Click here to download Cenfri workshop presentation (PDF: 883.77KB)
- Click here to download ILO workshop presentation (PDF: 240.44KB)
- Click here to download the FinMark Trust Zambia focus note Financial Access Matters December 2009 - No 5 (PDF: 394.42KB)
The thing about informality (2010)
Cenfri made a presentation on the issue of informal insurance markets at the Financial Stability Institute’s meeting on microinsurance in Basel (6-8 July 2010). The meeting was hosted in collaboration with the Access to Insurance Initiative (click here to read more) and attended by an audience of supervisors from 21 developing countries. The focus was on discussing the latest developments in microinsurance and particularly the implications for policy and regulation.
The role of the cell captives mechanism in developing the microinsurance landscape in South Africa (2010)
The cell captive insurance vehicle may be a convenient vehicle for providing insurance related services to the lower income market. It may also be a stepping stone for new entities wishing to enter the insurance market with the eventual goal of becoming a fully fledged insurer. Cenfri, on behalf of the FinMark Trust, commissioned Alchemy Consulting to to conduct a review of the cell captive mechanism and the potential role that it could play to support the development of the microinsurance market in South Africa. The objectives were: ·
- to set out the cell captive insurance mechanism currently used in the long and short term insurance industry in South Africa;
- to report on how cell captives are being used for the provision of low cost insurance solutions to the low-income market; ·
- to identify risks and opportunities for the future use of cell captives in the South African insurance landscape; ·
- to review the need for cell captive regulation and to serve as an information base to inform regulation.
- Click here to download the document (PDF: 478KB)
- Click here to download the presentation (PDF: 377KB) of the study as prepared for a FinMark forum on the use of Cell Captive mechanism