Insurance firms and banks have stepped up the hiring of bancassurance staff, driven by the growing business from their partnerships aimed at deepening insurance penetration across the country.
Bancassurance agreements have allowed banks to sell insurance products on commission while giving insurers direct access to lenders’ extensive customer bases, boosting sales volumes. Both parties see the collaboration as an opportunity to raise insurance penetration from the current 2.43 percent.
At the heart of the partnership is the combination of banks’ extensive customer reach and data insights with insurers’ technical expertise and regulatory licensing, creating a mutually beneficial growth avenue for both sectors.
This expanding business model has fuelled a surge in bancassurance hiring across banks and insurers, offering opportunities to job seekers who would traditionally only work in the insurance sector.
In July alone, at least 10 companies – including Standard Chartered Bancassurance Intermediary, NCBA Group, Family Bank, Stanbic Bancassurance Intermediary, Equity Bank, SBM Bank Kenya, Jubilee Insurance, ICEA Lion, Britam Group, and CICInsurance – advertised openings for bancassurance roles.
These job openings have ranged from entry-level to mid-level and managerial positions as banks and insurers reinforce their teams in this relatively new business line.
This has triggered a talent war in an industry also experiencing growing demand for actuaries and information technology specialists.
For instance, Standard Chartered Bancassurance Intermediary, part of Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, is currently recruiting a CEO and principal officer. ICEA Lion recently sought a bancassurance manager, while Liberty Life was hiring for an underwriting manager in its bancassurance unit.
Other institutions – including National Bank of Kenya, First Assurance Kenya, Jubilee Insurance, Equity Bank Kenya, HF Group, CIC Insurance, SBM Bank Kenya, and KCB Bank Kenya – have recently strengthened their bancassurance units through new hires in roles such as bancassurance sales managers, officers, operations officers, sales representatives, and sales coordinators.
The distribution of bancassurance roles, from top-level executives to branch-level sales and support staff, has opened up a wide range of career paths in financial services, offering opportunities for candidates with skills in insurance, banking, and sales.
Data from the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI), published last year, showed the value of insurance business underwritten through bancassurance grew by 13.3 percent to Sh35 billion in the year ended December 2023, taking its share of the insurance industry’s business to 10 percent.
At Sh35 billion, the bancassurance business has grown by 79.5 percent over the past five years, up from Sh19.5 billion in 2019, when it contributed 8.43 percent of the industry’s gross written premiums.
The AKI report revealed that 21 out of 24 bancassurance intermediaries reported increases in premiums between 2019 and 2023, with nine intermediaries more than doubling their premiums during this period.
While bancassurance business had previously stalled, the streamlining of regulations between 2021 and 2022 has encouraged more partnerships between banks and insurers.
