ICEA Lion insurance arms scoop top industry awards

ICEA Lion’s life and general insurance arms have been recognised as the best in their respective trades by Think Business, which holds insurance awards annually.

ICEA Lion General also won customer service prize during the awards gala dinner held on Wednesday evening in Nairobi, as the ICEA Lion Group got recognition as the best insurance in product marketing.

ICEA Lion Group risk and compliance manager Dorothy Maseke was declared the Corporate Risk Manager of the Year.

Another winner was APA Insurance Group, which received the major loss award, fraud detection and prevention initiative prize besides the training awards.

APA Life Assurance also won the claims settlement award.

READ: Jubilee, ICEA Lion accorded strong claims paying rating

The overall best insurance broker of the year was Liaison Group, while young insurance achiever of the year award went to Margaret Achieng Oyugi of Resolution Insurance.

The awards chief judge Isaac Ng’aru said the quality of entries for this year was excellent compared to past years but urged insurance companies to upgrade their actuarial skills.

“We were looking at education and training — what aspect all entries had to offer on that aspect because this industry depends on one critical asset which is the human asset,” said Mr Ng’aru who is also an insurance consultant.

“We were also looking at risk management, technology as an enabler for innovation, customer service and brand management.”

The insurance industry crossed the Sh500 million mark in total revenue last year.

The industry registered a 10.2 per cent growth, which saw total assets grow from Sh465 billion in 2015 to Sh512 billion in 2016.

Life business has contributed 59 per cent representing Sh304 billion, while general business contributed 41 per cent or Sh208 billion.

The judges, who were drawn from various disciplines, based their decisions on analysis of financial information.