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Jihan Abass is the founder and CEO of Lami Technologies, a digital insurance platform she established just over three years ago, to try fill the many gaps in the Kenya’s insurance industry.

Harriet James @harriet86jim

Based on the 2018 McKinsey studies that compared six insurance regions on the continent, Africa’s insurance market penetration rate stood at a meagre three per cent.

According to the findings, this was because of lack of financial inclusion and low literacy levels among the majority of the population.

Other reasons that affected the uptake of insurance were lack of affordability and inaccessibility.

For instance, when it came to health policies, customers usually faced restrictions regarding the health facilities they would use and treatments to be covered.

They also lacked understanding on the coverage terms. Statistics indicate that less than three out of 10 Kenyans have access to health insurance coverage, mainly under a low-cost government scheme.

It was such a background that Jihan Abass realised that a large part of her community did not have health insurance or any other type of safety net in case they fell ill or had an accident.

Only the digitisation of insurance was the solution that could drive the cost of distribution and underwriting down, and increase accessibility.

In 2018 Jihan established Lami, a digital insurance platform that enables partner businesses such as tech companies and banks to seamlessly offer digital insurance products to their users via its Application Programming Interface (API).

“The platform enables other insurance businesses to be able to craft and offer their own digital insurance products.

We noticed that digitisation of insurance is key to increasing penetration, as it offers new ways of solve customer pain points such as the price of an insurance policy or the ubiquity of the insurance product.

This will familiarise people more with insurance and allow them to experience it in a new way,” she explains.

Prompt services

Partner businesses can also utilise Lami to manage their own insurance needs.

Through its API, users can get a quotation for medical, motor and other tailored insurance products in seconds, and the benefits can be customised and adjusted according to the client’s requirement.

They can also get their policy documents instantly, and claims are also paid promptly.

“I connect insurance companies with businesses to offer a streamlined insurance experience for them and for their customers.

The Lami platform simplifies a long and complex insurance purchase to a few clicks and automates various parts of the process such as ‘know your customer’, asset verification and certificate issuance.

Lami transforms how customers interact with insurance policies by allowing them to tailor coverage to their needs, get flexible terms and better payment plans,” Jihan adds.

The platform offers a wide range of products depending on the client’s needs.

Apart from the trailblazing B2C Griffin Motor Insurance, they have developed innovative products such as the cashless personal accident cover for bus passengers, which is charged on a per-trip basis thus making it flexible.

They also offer innovative medical insurance for businesses with better terms and payment plans.

Other products include micro-health insurance, asset and electronic device insurance and logistics carrier insurance.

“What makes our products stand out is the seamless customer and level of automation in servicing insurance policies and claims.

We are on a mission of breaking the three per cent insurance penetration in Africa.

This means, only three out of 100 people have a safety net to rely on in case of illness, accident or an unforeseen event.

Such risks can deplete the savings of a family and destabilise their financial stability.

To mitigate this problem, we democratise financial products to improve people’s lives and offer a safety net for millions of customers through accessible, affordable and trustworthy financial and insurance products,” she explains.

Since its inception, the platform has sold over 5,000 policies and has partnered with over 25 active underwriters including Pioneer, Britam and Madison.

Like every other start-up, Lami too has had its own challenges among them getting insurance companies on-board.

“Transitioning from a traditional way of offering insurance to digital distribution channels only worked because Lami began to show early the value of customer experience, which requires getting the right insurance to the right customer at the right time,” she says.

The other challenge was building a company culture that promotes professionalism and excellence while nurturing innovation and creativity of a workforce that works remotely.

With most industry’s chief executives being men and foreigners, the stereotypes around young women founders has also been a difficult corner to navigate.

She says, “Many times, I found myself in meetings where I am the only woman at the table.

For many people, it is hard to believe that a young woman entrepreneur is going to innovate and disrupt the centuries-old insurance industry. It is time for this perception to change.”

Women in tech

However, women are gradually embracing the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) field, and many organisations are currently empowering young girls to pursue studies in the field.

Jihan believes that it is a great time to be a woman in tech. Her recent award of US$1.8 million (Sh194 million) as seed capital by Accion Venture Lab to accelerate the growth of digital insurance is proof that the time is ripe for women-led start-ups.

Lami plans to reach 50 million customers by 2025 as well as underwrite over US$1 billion (Sh107 billion) in gross written premiums.

The funding will be used to further improve Lami Technologies’ digital insurance platform, which aims to support low-income populations and expand the tech start-ups’ footprint in the continent.

“This funding will allow us to invest in hiring more people, improving our technology and growing our presence across Africa as we can continue to address the persistent insurance gaps,” says Jihan.

To the start-ups looking for capital and funds, she encourages them not to quit but to continue believing in themselves.

“We may face problems and obstacles, but we should learn from them and grow. It is also essential to stay focused on your vision, but try different ways to solve it,” says Jihan in conclusion.