Insurance Industry Growth Up In Q1, 2022

The insurance sector like many other sectors in Kenya continues to recover from the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Latest Industry Statistics from the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) indicate that the industry continued to register improved performance in the first quarter of 2022 compared to previous quarters.

Industry gross written premiums in the first quarter of 2022 went up by 11 % to Sh88.43 billion from Sh79.26 billion in Q1 2021.

General Insurance premiums amounted to Sh53.92 billion while the premium reported by the long-term insurers in the period under review hit Sh34.51 billion, a growth of 12.1 % compared to a growth of 18.6% the previous year.

Medical and motor insurance classes maintained a leading position in terms of contribution in general insurance business premium at 35.9% and 27.5% respectively. Aviation, theft, and miscellaneous classes are the only classes whose premiums decreased by 16.1%, 11.0%, and 10.6% respectively.

Deposit Administration and Life Assurance classes remained the biggest contributors to the long-term insurance business accounting for 34.4% and 25.1% respectively.

According to the report, the underwriting performance of the general insurance business was a loss of Sh510.20 million which was an improvement from a loss of Sh1.74 billion reported in Q1 2021.

Personal accident class made the highest underwriting profit of Sh712.27 million while motor private and medical classes of general insurance business incurred the highest losses of Sh1.04 billion and Sh628.58 million respectively.

“The long-term insurers’ asset base grew by 12.9% in the period under review to Sh580.21 billion and largely composed of income generating investments of KES 537.83 billion. Of the total assets, 9.5 % (KES 55.17 billion) was funded through shareholders’ equity,” the report reads.

The reinsurers’ business volume increased by 33.2% to Sh10.57 billion in the period under review compared to Sh7.94 billion, same period last year leading to an underwriting profit of Sh517.18 million from a loss of Sh990.23 million in Q1 2021.

The insurance industry asset base grew by 10.5% to Sh876.58 billion as at end of Q1 2022 from Sh793.24 billion held as at end of Q1 2021.

A significant portion of total assets KES 753.70 billion (86.0%) were held in income generating investments.Asset classes with the highest proportions of above 5% were; government securities (69.7%), investment property (11.2%) and term deposits (7.6%).

“Total equity increased by 5.9% to stand at Sh176.48 billion as at end of Q12022 (Q1 2021: KES 166.68 billion). The key components of shareholder’s funds were retained earnings at 35.8%, paid up capital at 33.0% and statutory reserves at 16.8%,” the report revealed.