The insurance industry in Kenya is strongly recovering from the rumbles of Covid-19, hitting Sh1 trillion in assets in the first three months of the year.
Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) performance statistics for the first quarter shows the sector's total assets grew by 14.1 per cent during the quarter under view, against industry liabilities of Sh815.50 billion.
This saw insurers' net assets expand 13 per cent to Sh184.97 billion.
Gross premium income grew by 14.8 per cent in the first three months of the year, rising to Sh104.5 billion compared to Sh88.4 billion in the same quarter last year.
The regulator attributes the growth to the continued economic recovery from the negative effect of Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021.
The income has been rising for the past three years, rising from a five-year low of Sh79.3 billion in Q1, 2021.
Long-term insurance business premiums amounted to Sh38.97 billion accounting for 38.4 per cent of the total industry premium while general business premiums amounted to Sh62.52 billion (61.6 per cent).
This is an improvement compared to Sh34.5 billion registered in a similar period last year, which represented 18.6 per cent of sector premiums.
The amount was lower, at Sh30.7 billion or 12.1 per cent of total industry earnings in a similar quarter in 2021.
Investment income (revenue account, and profit and loss account) under the long-term insurance business increased to Sh 14.38 billion during the quarter under review compared to Sh9 billion.
The general insurance business recorded an investment income of KES 2.98 billion during the period compared to Sh2.5 billion last year.
Under the general insurance business, Workmen’s Compensation gross premium income had the highest growth of 64.1 per cent from Sh3.19 billion reported in Q1 2022 to Sh5.23 billion reported in Q1 2023.
Personal accidents had the largest decline from Sh1.07 billion recorded in Q1 2022 to Sh972.67 million in Q1 2023.
The high premium volume classes of general insurance business contributed the largest proportions of incurred claims, that is, medical Sh8.72 billion (40.5 per cent), motor commercial KES 5.29 billion (24.6 per cent) and motor private Sh4.99 billion (23.2 per cent).
Medical, motor private and motor commercial continued to dominate claims accounting for 40.9 per cent(Sh8.25 billion), 24.9per cent (Sh5.02 billion) and 23.1 per cent (Sh4.65 billion) respectively of total industry-paid claims under the general insurance business.
The underwriting performance of the general insurance business reported a loss of Sh2.01 billion which was a decline of 294.7 per cent from a loss of Sh510.20 million reported in Q1 2022.
However, the general reinsurers' underwriting performance recorded a profit of Sh487.8 million, having dropped Sh517.18 million in the corresponding quarter last year.
