Insurance brokers protest market share loss to banks

Association of Insurance Brokers of Kenya vice chairman Nelson Omolo (right) shares a light moment with Rehan Khan during their monthly meeting held at Serena Hotel on January 29, 2016. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE 

In Summary

• Speaking in Nairobi during a breakfast meeting, the AIBK boss said Kenya must also urgently look into the rising number of medical cases referred to India as local doctors were pocketing upto Sh 100,000 per referral.

By JAMES KARIUKI
More by this Author

Insurance brokers Friday called on the government to save them from banks as bancassurance eats into their market share.

Association of Insurance Brokers of Kenya(AIBK) chairman Mr Muchemi Ndung’u said they had officially protested to the Commissioner of Insurance and to the Insurance Regulatory Authority(IRA) urging them to intervene and stop the haemorrhage.

“Bancassurance is cannibalizing us into oblivion and this must stop since they lack trained staff to handle clients as we have done over the years.

Competition is healthy but it has to be regulated as what the banks are doing is not enhancing penetration but disrupting the insurance brokerage business,” said Mr Ndung’u.

Speaking in Nairobi during a breakfast meeting, the AIBK boss said Kenya must also urgently look into the rising number of medical cases referred to India as local doctors were pocketing upto Sh100,000 per referral.

This is depleting families’s resources as well adversely affecting the country’s economy as more patients were being referred to Indian hospitals unnecessarily to undergo surgical procedures that could be handled locally at a much cheaper cost.

Mr Ndung’u said that AIBK’s Sh3 million was still held at Imperial Bank and urged his board to pursue the matter to have the money released to fund the association’s programme.