On 5 June 2014, the African Insurance Organization (AIO), the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii), the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), and the Microinsurance Network (MIN) hosted a Policy Seminar on Microinsurance Regulation for Insurance Supervisory Authorities in Kigali, Rwanda. The Policy Seminar was designed as a Consultative Forum to provide a platform for exchange between insurance supervisors and participants from the insurance industry. The Forum focused on topics and strategies connecting regulation, supervision and policy, and industry action. The topic for the forum was “Challenges and opportunities in enhancing client value in insurance – the African experience with new technologies”.

In Africa, m-insurance, insurance sold through and/or with a mobile network operator (MNO), has gained significant attention in recent years due to its rapid growth and potential to grow inclusive insurance markets. However, with new technologies come new challenges. Jeremy Leach director at Bankable Frontiers Associates presented The role of technological innovation in scaling up access to insurance and its regulatory challenges: a focus on m-insurance as part of a panel that discussed regulatory initiatives and supervisory practices and the related challenges in new business models relying on technologies for a partnership, for distribution and for administration.

The presentation was based on the study commissioned by FinMark Trust and conducted by Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) and Cenfri to learn lessons from the failure of an m-insurance initiative, Ecolife Zimbabwe, and develop recommendations with the aim of protecting clients and ensuring positive synergies between financial inclusion and these other policy objectives in the m-insurance space.