Services offered under Social Health Insurance Fund since rollout on October 1, 2024
Update as of June 16, 2025.
3mon agoRosa MumanyiInfographics
They are changing an unspoken status quo that has existed for decades: women’s protection has remained largely tucked under family insurance plans.
This is despite women making up more than half of Africa’s population and live, on average, four years longer than men, according to data by World Health Organisation and the World Population Prospects.
But the insurance model is fast changing in the continent where penetration rate has over the period hovered at below 3 per cent of GDP, compared to 7 per cent global average.
Across Africa, insurers are rolling out dedicated, women-first insurance products designed to close gender gaps in financial inclusion and spark fresh demand for coverage.
Service providers in some of the continent’s biggest economies — Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa — are using these markets as test beds.
Old Mutual is the latest to launch a standalone package: Lady Anchor. It bundles health, life and general insurance.
During its launch in Nairobi, Old Mutual Group CEO Arthur Oginga said Lady Anchor targets women from age 18 all the way to 79 years.
“It looks at women through different lenses — entrepreneurs, corporate women, young girls — crafting and meeting the specific needs of those women through the bundling process,” Oginga said.
Lady Anchor lets women assemble their own cover, choosing health or motor insurance as a base, and layering on benefits from maternity and dental care to personal accident and domestic worker protection.
Critical illness cover comes embedded in the health option, while a built-in investment channel into Old Mutual’s Money Market Fund links short-term protection to long-term wealth building.
By packaging health, lifestyle and financial security into a single product, Lady Anchor signals a break from the family-first insurance model that has historically left women under-covered.
A 2024 Old Mutual Financial Services Monitor found that 46 per cent of working women face high financial stress, while 51 per cent say money worries harm their health.
Over half are in the ‘sandwich generation’, supporting both children and elderly dependents.
“Lady Anchor is not just about insurance,” Old Mutual sustainability executive Carol Misiko said. “It is about meeting women where they are as caregivers, professionals, entrepreneurs, and protectors.”
In May, another Kenyan-based insurer, CIC Group, announced a partnership with an NGO, the Women’s World Banking, to co-create tailored insurance products across the country.
“This partnership will enable us to contribute to insurance penetration in Kenya, which is currently below 3 per cent,” CIC Group CEO Patrick Nyaga said.
The partnership agreed to conduct in-depth research, through engagements with end users and customers to understand their experiences.
This is expected to guide the designing of user-centric products that reflect women’s realities and capture an evolving risk and protection needs for vulnerable populations in areas like health and income loss, particularly for women in the lower economic spectrum.
“Our goal is to co-create insurance solutions that are not only affordable and accessible but truly empowering for women and their families,” Women’s World Banking CEO Mary Iskenderian said.
Other Kenyan players experimenting on standalone women covers include APA’s SHEild product, which links women to wellness forums and financial literacy workshops.
Meanwhile, Britam’s Malkia, launched late last year, offers a cash-back benefit upon diagnosis of certain medical conditions.
Kenya’s insurance penetration is about 2.9 per cent, leading East Africa and often touted as the region’s most innovative insurance hub.
