Cooperative Insurance Company of Kenya Limited (CIC), an insurance company in Kenya, has announced the launch of M-Bima, a mobile-to-mobile premium payment program. CIC has partnered with telecommunications company Safaricom and its M-Pesa program, a mobile-to-mobile money management service, and reportedly plans to partner with other money transfer platforms such as u-Cash, and Airtel’s Zap/Airtel Money. CIC will allow customers to remit payments of KES 20 (USD .25) or more through mobile phones. Nelson Kuria, Managing Director of CIC, reportedly commented that the success of a microinsurance product depends on whether it is “designed to accommodate the policyholder’s irregular cash flows… [and] carry limited screening requirements that have kept customers away in the past.” He added that this mobile program along with the microinsurance products were targeted at small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) [1].
About the Cooperative Insurance Company (CIC): The Cooperative Insurance Company (CIC) is a microinsurance company in Kenya that was founded in 1978 as Cooperative Insurance Services (CIS). In 1999, it changed its name to Cooperative Insurance Company and now offers general and life insurance to low-income individuals. It reports having KSE 3.5 billion (USD 43 million) in assets as of 2009.
About M-Pesa: M-Pesa is a Kenyan cellphone-to-cellphone cash-transfer service. (The M is for “mobile” and pesa is “cash” in Swahili.) Launched in 2007 by Safaricom Limited, a Kenya-based cellphone service provider, M-Pesa was developed by Vodafone Group Private Limited Corporation, a British multinational mobile network operator, as part of its strategy to reach the bottom of the economic pyramid with new goods and services.
By Diana Baide, Research Assistant
[1] Ratio Magazine. “Kenya: Press Release: CIC Unveil New Premium Remittance Platform” 29 November 2010
MicroCapital’s Microfinance Universe profile: Cooperative Insurance Company of Kenya (CIC)
MicroCapital’s Microfinance Universe profile: M-Pesa
https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=M-Pesa
Browse the MicroCapital Universe and add your entry to the wiki at: https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/
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