Equity Group Chairman Isaac Macharia, Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) Commissioner of Insurance Godfrey Kiptum, Equity Group CEO James Mwangi and IRA Chairman Abdirahin Haithar Abdi when Equity Group was given the Equity Life Assurance (Kenya) Ltd operating licence.
Equity Group has raided insurers for top talent for its underwriting business, partly driven by its newest company that recently received an Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) licence for general business.
The group, which has entered the insurance business as a revenue diversification strategy, has since the start of the year hired at least six individuals that were serving their previous insurance firms in executive positions.
Some of the new employees have come from Kenya while others have been tapped from southern Africa, which leads the continent in insurance uptake.
Equity Group CEO James Mwangi said on Monday the financial services firm wants to blend insiders with local and international talent to ensure the insurance business starts strongly.
“You will see us continue to strengthen our bench. If you look at the insurance team, they have all come from outside,” he said while unveiling the team after releasing the financial results for the first six months of the year.
“That doesn’t mean we didn’t have staff. We have been in the insurance business for 18 years under bancassurance but this is very different from real underwriting the risk. So we have got people who have done risk before and know the ropes.”
Equity has brought in Godfrey Tenesi as managing director of Equity Bancassurance Intermediary —the long-term insurance business that is part of Equity Group. He reported in January from Zambia where he was serving as the chief commercial officer at Sanlam.
Kushatha Moswela, formerly managing director at Old Mutual Short Term Insurance Botswana has also joined as the group director of insurance operations at Equity Insuarance Group.
“East Africa has done so poorly [on insurance penetration] compared with southern Africa. So we want to tap into the skills and competencies of that (southern Africa) market,” said Mr Mwangi.
The group at the same time hired Calvince Onduru as deputy-managing director at Equity Life Assurance. Mr Onduru was tapped from Old Mutual Kenya where he was doubling up as the acting managing director for the company and head of operations for the life insurance business.
Also tapped into the insurance business is Kris Mbaya, who is now the group director for shared services at Equity Insurance Group—the company that houses life and general insurance businesses. He was hired from Star Discover Insurance Group where he was serving as the CEO.
Patrick Gatonga joined in June this year as the managing director at Equity Health Insurance. He was hired from AAR Insurance Holdings where he was serving as the CEO.
And in bid to also strengthen the general insurance business, Equity went for Directline Assurance CEO Evans Nyagah and appointed him managing director at Equity General Insurance (Kenya) Limited.
Mr Mwangi announced that the IRA has granted the group the licence for the general business. Equity in 2022 entered the insurance business with the launch of a life insurance company.
