Insurers see growth in rising demand for smartphones

Kenya Orient customer service manager Mariam Ahmed with CEO Muema Muindi and Orient Mobile product manager Frida Mwaura. COURTESY 

By Okuttah Mark

Insurance firms have started covering smartphones as the demand for high-end devices increases. Kenya Orient has unveiled a Sh999 monthly premium policy covering smartphones against theft and accidental destruction.

Other insurers such as Jubilee have previously launched similar covers in partnership with Samsung and Nation Media Group.

Orient has unbundled the product from the domestic cover.

The number of high-end smartphones is estimated at one million but is expected to grow four fold by the year 2015, according to industry regulator Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).

“As the non-life segment moves beyond motor insurance, we are looking beyond the usual product avenues to give Kenyans compelling, affordable and convenient solutions as well as deepen the penetration of insurance in the country,” said Kenya Orient managing director Muema Muindi.

From the handset that is being insured, the insured buys the cover by sending an SMS with the word
‘Mobile’ to the code 70707. The phone should be less than two years old from the date of purchase to be eligible for the cover.

A number of devices can registered using one national ID or Passport number, but each device will have own policy number.

Customers who have more than three claims annually risk blacklisting but premiums can be paid in three phases.

Additionally, the insurance value also takes into account the expected depreciation of the device over the next 12 months. Therefore, the insurance value will always be lower than the retail price at the time of taking up the policy.

Lost data

Kenya has more than 30 million mobile phone subscribers but it is estimated that the number of handsets could be above half the number of subscribers because most people have more than one simcard.

The uptake of mobile handsets has also offered data backup service opportunities.

Safaricom and South African firm Gemalto have introduced service that allows storage of personal data from sim-cards in external servers that are accessed via the Internet on what is commonly known as cloud computing.

Subscribers are also able to retrieve data by logging profiles on the cloud in the event a sim-card card is damaged or lost.