Turnkey Unveils TurnQuest Marine Portal for Insurers and Brokers

Turnkey CEO, Kizito Makatiani

Press Release: Nairobi, December 15, 2016

With the clock ticking towards the January 1st 2017 d-day for Kenya to officially enforce the purchase of all marine insurance covers for goods imported into the country, local software manufacturer Turnkey Africa has set up online platform accessible to all insurance companies and brokers.

The portal, known as Turnquest Marine, is a cloud-based service designed within a broader system of applications specifically developed for insurance businesses. It also capable of integrating with Kenya Revenue Authority’s Simba System and the National Electronic Single Window System (TradeNet) operated by Kenya Trade  Network Agency (Kentrade).


Speaking when he presented the new portal to players in the insurance sector, Turnkey Africa Chief Executive Officer Kizito Makatiani said that the portal will save players hundreds of millions of shillings in capital expenditure invested in company - owned systems and enable them to move with speed to implement the product for their clients as the import business is very time sensitive.

“Kenya has slightly over 50 insurance companies and about double that number of brokers. With the new law taking effect they all need a system that they can easily register into, access from as many locations as possible, integrate with their own existing processes for payments and finally deliver a seamless service to both importers and the agents involved in the whole value chain,” said Makatiani.

He said that Turnkey Africa’s TurnQuest Marine Portal is also usable by insurance brokers who are able to compare the quotes from various insurance companies and deliver the best to their clients. He cautioned that marine insurance is very critical for successful international trade and it will be paramount for insurance companies and brokers not seen to be introducing a new non-tariff barrier in the process of implementing the new law.
“We see a successful rollout of this marine insurance requirement as a very collaborative process that needs to involve the clearing and forward agents, insurance intermediaries, the regulators and all government agencies,” added Makatiani.

Makatiani noted that with the growing use of technology by insurance consumers, insurance companies and brokerages are increasingly seeing that investing in new technology to support services is a defining competitive edge.

“While this may be true to a certain extent, the perpetual state of flux that changes in technology and consumer knowledge, influences behavior will continue dictating that firms resort to outsourcing core technologies and sharpening their customer service and relationship management capabilities. Investment in this type of technological service is the way forward for them,” he noted.

The Analytics Driven Insurer

Image courtesy of marketingland.com

By Shikoli Makatiani

The way insurance is done is changing at a fast pace, an industry once known for being highly risk averse by nature is quickly learning to embrace change mostly out of necessity rather than by choice. There is immense pressure from all fronts including increased competition (within and without the industry), government regulations, globalization, natural catastrophes and changing consumer  behavior.

Business executives and decision makers are hard pressed to come up with viable strategies to help their organizations compete and thrive. Suffice to say many don’t realize they already hold a piece of the puzzle to their breakthrough. That piece being the immense data at their disposal.

Data has become a key strategic asset for businesses. For the insurance industry this is not an entirely new concept because of the industry’s heavy reliance on data to make decisions around risks, premiums and claims. And though insurers through actuaries have for decades been able to extract some viable information from their data, the recent advancements in technology have created an upsurge in the amounts of data being produced presenting a mixed bag of both challenges and opportunities.

The challenge is how to harness this new data - gather it, store it, evaluate it and make sense out of it especially with the complexity presented by the huge volumes, the wide variety and the speed at which this data is coming in. Sifting through this vast amount of data is not easy especially with limited computing power, expertise and resources at hand.

Snapshot of Turnkey Africa's TurnQuest Analytics Dashboard

The main motivation that should be driving insurers to find a way to quickly overcome this challenges is the immense opportunities available in leveraging such data to gain insight into prospective markets, risks, competitors and customers. Insurers now have the unprecedented opportunity to augment client’s risk details using data from multiple sources like emails, public records and even social media. And with this form of data enrichment comes the possibility of more accurate pricing and rating, validation of information originally received from clients and creation of targeted products.

Data enrichment cannot happen unless insurers employ data collection and analysis tools and techniques that are best suited to their needs. Data analytics – the science of examining raw data with the purpose of drawing conclusions about that information – is a good place for insurers to start. With data analytics insurers have the opportunity to aggregate data from both internal and external sources to detect trends and patterns that might otherwise be missed.

Data analytics falls within the bigger umbrella of Business Intelligence (BI) which is mainly the use of data to inform and facilitate business management and strategizing. While BI is mainly about data driven decision-making, data analytics is about seeking answers to the type of customer sales, marketing and customer service questions asked by most companies. By incorporating the power of analytics into their day to day decision making, insurers can minimize their exposure to risk through risk profiling, eliminate fraud at point of sale and benefit from a reduction in lost premiums and claims leakage.

While insurance companies have generally lagged behind their financial services sector counterparts in adoption of new-age technologies, the impetus to invest in analytics has never been greater. The ability to look into the past (hindsight), the present (insight) and glimpse into the future (foresight) puts an analytic driven insurer in the enviable position of being able to make the most of their information assets and discover new opportunities for enhanced business performance and competitive advantage.

GN Life (Ghana) Partners with Turnkey Africa for Innovative Insurance system

GN Life acquires TurnQuest Insurance Suite to transform insurance sales and operations in Ghana. 

Accra, Ghana – 23^rd September, 2016 - GN Life Assurance Company Limited, a provider of innovative life assurance products, today announced a new strategic partnership with Turnkey Africa Ltd, a leading pan-African provider of integrated insurance management solutions for insurers and bancassurers.


GN Life’s acquisition of Turnkey’s TurnQuest Insurance Suite is its latest deliberate effort towards attaining its strategic business imperative of innovation and transformation in the areas of product, underwriting, claims, billing and policy administration to ultimately remodel the way insurance is bought and sold in Ghana.

With TurnQuest, GN Life expects to achieve greater business performance, reduce time to market for products, introduce new product distribution channels, improve customer insight, provide better access to intermediaries, and ultimately improve client acquisition and retention. The TurnQuest Insurance Suite is a comprehensive, end-to-end insurance solution that provides the flexibility and scalability required to support today’s business competitive plans and future growth initiatives. The e-business enabled platform seamlessly integrates all insurance business processes allowing for a 360-degree customer or product portfolio view and faster business transaction processing.

"The TurnQuest platform, with its robust simple to use interface, provides us the perfect path to IT modernization with an intended focus on business value, customer experience and operational benefits," said Mr. Fiifi Simpson - CEO of GN Life. "We are now just scratching the surface of opportunities and TurnQuest is ideally suited to help us better stay ahead of complex regulations, disruptive technology trends and changing consumer demands. This partnership ensures that we future proof our business and we are excited about the possibilities this offers the industry.

Mr. Kizito Makatiani, CEO of Turnkey Africa said, "GN’s acquisition of TurnQuest reflects Turnkey's excellent reputation as a market leader with deep domain knowledge, a strong software engineering heritage and focus on applying innovation to solving critical core business issues for clients. Our software is expected to enable GN Life revolutionize their business by enhancing their operations and processes.”

ABOUT GN LIFE
GN Life started operations in the Ghanaian market in January 2015. GN Life is positioned to deliver superior services to clients through claims payment, innovative product offerings and excellent customer service. GN Life is a member of Groupe Nduom, whose businesses and social enterprises include entities in Financial Services, Investment Advisory and Management, Technology, Management Consulting, Cross Border Trade, Media, Tourism and Sports industries.

ABOUT TURNKEY AFRICA
Turnkey Africa Limited is a leading Pan-African insurance technology and services provider with a proven record of over 18 years and a footprint of 32 clients across 5 countries in Africa. Turnkey develops, supply’s and manages end-to-end insurance business software solutions and services for the insurance industry.

Turnkey provides, through its core insurance product, TurnQuest Insurance Suite, a comprehensive and integrated set of applications built on a common platform that covers the entire insurance lifecycle, and is augmented by data and analytics capability that gives the insurer a 360-degree view of the business.

Insurers implementing TurnQuest are positioned to reap the benefits of accelerated speed to market for their products and services, respond quickly to regulatory changes, have visibility into the financial processes all leading to an overall increase in operational efficiency to achieving their business imperatives of sustainable growth and profitability.

Nigeria Ranked 4th Among Top 10 Countries in African Insurance

Market With Overall Premium Income of Over USD1billion

By Turnkey Writer, Said Olanrewaju

According to a recent survey, the 10 largest African insurance markets for 2014 were South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, Angola, Namibia, Tunisia and Mauritius. Cumulatively this 10 countries generated 92% of the total African premiums with 6 surpassing the US$ 1billion threshold in Non-life premiums. South Africa dominated in both life and non-life with its premiums accounting for 87 percent of life insurance and 40 percent in non-life insurance segments. The survey was published by African Insurance Organization (AIO) in its inaugural edition of the African Insurance Barometer.

Of these top 10 markets, by far the one that has the strongest growth prospects and yet considered as one of the toughest nuts to crack is Nigeria. From a demographic point of view Nigeria’s size and population of over 173.6 million (2013 - World Bank) puts it at a great comparative advantage. The oil rich country and largest economy in Africa is the biggest oil exporter and has the largest natural gas reserves in Africa. However recent news features have highlighted a lot of what is going wrong in the country including the terrorism, fuel and currency crises. And there is the perennial crises of power shortages and corruption which are all weighing heavy on its present economic standing. Its insurance industry also suffered a slight blow with non-life insurance premiums shrinking by -2.2% but on the life insurance side the news was good as the premiums grew in line with the GDP, according the AIO publication.

Negative news aside the long term prospects for the Nigeria insurance industry are extremely favorable especially if you consider the fact that there has been a steady rise in the number of people in upper-middle income bracket increasing the number of people who can now afford insurance. Also the government’s concerted efforts of putting in place systems and regulatory frameworks to help enhance the sector are serving to instill investor confidence for substantial, long term investment in the sector. Several key issues in the sector are pertinent including low insurance penetration, undercapitalization and lack of specialist risk management capabilities the latter of which is causing flight of premiums to foreign insurers and hurting the country’s economy as a whole.

One way the government is dealing with the low penetration according to a recent KPMG report is through compulsory insurance such as third-party car insurance, builders’ liability, occupiers’ liability and employers’ liability and health care workers professional indemnity. (KPMG Sector Report 2015). A similar report for 2014 points to the government drafting new regulations aimed at ‘increasing the capacity of domestic insurance companies so that they can handle large risks.’ Also notable is the effort to boost mobile banking which has ‘the potential to support the insurance industry’ as it has done elsewhere on the continent and so thus the signing number of agreements between banks and telcos.

Aside from government initiatives, the industry has also embarked on its own initiatives some of which will help the sector meet changing market and customer needs and take advantage of new opportunities. Modern systems and solutions have been noted as some of the key factors to the remarkable performance of the South African insurance sector along with a strong financial sector, high risk awareness levels and the fact that South Africans trust the local financial providers. The consistent improvements in the Nigerian insurance sector could to some extend be attributed to the utilization of technology which has subsequently helped put Nigeria on the top 5 insurance markets in Africa ranking 4^th with overall premium income of N386 billion (over $1b)?

As Nigeria seeks to go the way of South Africa, it is also important to note that more awareness and sensitization of the Nigerian population on the importance and value of insurance is crucial. Overall, a lot still needs to be done within the insurance industry in order to meet up with global standards and expectations as well as for Nigeria to live up to the enormous potential that lies within its borders.

Press Release: Pacis Insurance Acquires Core Insurance Platform from Turnkey Africa

Local Insurer Transforming Business in Line with Growth Plans 
 
Nairobi, Kenya / August 2016  - Pacis Insurance this month announced its acquisition of the TurnQuest Insurance management platform as part of its strategic growth plans. This purchase is a key pillar in unlocking their ability to leverage technology and position themselves as a major competitor in the Kenyan insurance market.


Changing market and customer dynamics are affecting the way people buy and experience insurance demanding a shift in the way insurers do business. In recognition of this Pacis Insurance developed a strategy that will allow them to profitably grow their business in the face of the business challenges posed by technological advances, the advent and growth of social networks, omnipresent regulatory oversight and the opportunity presented by regional economies. Rt. Rev. James Maria Wainaina of the Member of the Board of Directors, Pacis Insurance stated that, “Implementing the TurnQuest solution will go a long way in helping Pacis achieve its business imperatives of growth and sustainability as well as enhance its customer service and product innovation”.

Speaking during the signing, Turnkey Africa’s CEO Kizito Makatiani said “We are honoured that Pacis Insurance chose the TurnQuest Insurance Suite as its primary insurance software and we look forward to a mutually beneficial partnership as we embark on this transformative journey”
He further added that, “The selection of the TurnQuest platform is an endorsement of the depth and breadth of the solution we provide and our expertise in delivering proven, complete and innovative solutions to our customers”.

- Ends -

ABOUT PACIS INSURANCE
PACIS Insurance Company Limited was incorporated in Kenya in October 2004 and is an initiative of the Catholic Church, with a vision to be the icon of reliability and trustworthiness. Pacis strives to bring peace and comfort to society by ensuring that all clients have peace of mind because they know that in the event of a loss, we will be there for them.

Pacis Insurance underwrites General Insurance risks such as Pacis Motor cover, Clergy covers, Medical Corporate cover, Institutional covers, House Protect, Pacis Golfers, Group Personal Accident cover and Pacis Travel cover.

ABOUT TURNKEY AFRICA LIMITED
Turnkey Africa Limited is a leading Pan-African insurance technology and services provider with a proven record of over 18 years and a footprint of 32 clients across 5 countries in Africa. Turnkey develops, supply’s and manages end-to-end insurance business software solutions and services for the insurance industry.
Turnkey provides, through its core insurance product, TurnQuest Insurance Suite, a comprehensive and integrated set of applications built on a common platform that covers the entire insurance lifecycle, and is augmented by data and analytics capability that gives the insurer a 360-degree view of the business.

Insurers implementing TurnQuest are positioned to reap the benefits of accelerated speed to market for their products and services, respond quickly to regulatory changes, have visibility into the financial processes all leading to an overall increase in operational efficiency to achieving their business imperatives of sustainable growth and profitability.

CONTACT:
For more information, please contact:
Brian Abajah
Business Development Manager
Turnkey Africa Ltd
E: brian@turnkeyafrica.com

Technology is How We Win the Battle against Insurance Fraud

 
By Kizito Makatiani
Last year, the local media highlighted an insurance fraud case where a husband and wife combo decided to fake the husband’s death and the death certificate, then have the wife claim compensation from their insurer. Prior to this story, there had been a case involving 11 individuals who were arrested and arraigned in court, suspected to be part of a fraud ring conspiring to defraud a local insurer of Kshs.15 million by forging the insurer’s medical cards and hospital prescriptions and using them to acquire medical drugs from various health institutions. And then there was the case of an insurance investigator who was arrested and prosecuted in September 2015, accused of pretending to be in a position to influence motor insurance claim payment. Fake deaths, fake accidents, inflated damages, staged accidents, on and on the scams go.

Insurance fraud has been a consistently growing concern for insurers in Kenya with an increasing share of the claims payments done being attributed to the vice. According to the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) Quarter 4 report for 2015, the Insurance Fraud Investigation Unit (IFIU) recorded a total number of 106 cases reported in 2015 which was an increase from the 87 cases reported in 2014. The amount lost increased from Kshs.102.76 million reported in 2014 to Kshs.366.90 million. Of the 106 cases reported, motor underwriting led the list with 42 cases, followed by agent/broker fraud at 25 and medical in third place with 17 cases.

Insurance fraud is prevalent across the entire insurance value chain with the most affected areas being claims and underwriting but as technology evolves and fraudster tactics become more sophisticated, insurers are now increasingly having to deal with other forms of fraud including internal fraud and money laundering as well as the emerging issue of cyber fraud. The KPMG East Africa Insurance Fraud Risk Survey 2015 highlights better assessment of risk at proposal stage and improvement of internal controls as some areas of focus that the region, and Kenya in particular need to concentrate on if the threat of fraud risk is to be curtailed. Also mentioned in the survey report is data analytics.

In the past, insurance companies have relied heavily on fraud investigators to look into suspicious cases and determine whether fraud has occurred. But as our world and technology evolves, we are witnessing a new breed of fraudsters (and fraud rings) using more advanced techniques. This new challenge demands that the insurance industry shifts to improved fraud detection initiatives. Insurers now need to be thinking about new data solutions, workflow streamlining and improved risk management.

To combat fraud more effectively, the ability to collect and analyze huge volumes and varieties of data is essential. Insurers already collect large amounts of data but what many lack is the ability to quickly and systematically evaluate that data in order to identify activities and patterns indicative of potential fraud. There are new technology tools and techniques in the market that can help insurers uncover complex or organized fraud activities using both structured and unstructured data. These include data analytics, predictive modelling, link analysis, automated red flags/business rules, and geographic data mapping.

Predictive modelling enables insurers to review historical fraudulent claims and identify factors and elements that can help prevent future fraud with the main goal being to detect the fraud early enough in the claims process. Link analysis examines relationships among claims, people and transactions thus helping link different players and identify the extent of the relationships between the parties, then giving off data that can be used to define indicators that point to possible fraudulent activity. Automated red flags/business rules can be inbuilt into an insurer’s core IT systems and are instrumental in helping anticipate certain types of suspicious claim activity based on past fraud through the identification of anomalies or irregularities during processing of claims. Geo-mapping can help the insurers evaluate risk and exposure during underwriting and during claims processing. For example, the insurer can now confirm that an incident actually occurred where the customer claims it did.

There are many other tools available in the market, but it is important to note that in order to take full advantage of any or even all of these technological capabilities, insurers must first address legacy technology issues and inefficient processes that have proven to be a great hindrance in the war against fraud. Adapting to modern technology significantly improves the insurer’s operational workflow and also helps manage claims investigations faster and more effectively.

With automated workflow solutions, insurers can be able to track daily activities and expenses and get at-a-glance reports to help flag any suspicious activities. With modern systems, underwriters are also able to confirm information by comparing the applicant reports with information available from other databases and public records online and thus confirm prior coverage, discover undisclosed information and eliminate policy application fraud before it occurs.

Turnkey Africa through its flagship product, TurnQuestTM Insurance Suite provides an integrated set of applications to support the entire insurance lifecycle with inbuilt data and analytics capabilities. TurnQuest’s integrated analytics solution enables insurers to aggregate and easily visualize data to be able to identify suspicious activity that point towards fraud. While fraud identification was handled in a reactive manner in the past, our modern technology combines the power of analytics to detect unknown fraud, both new and unique, along with business rules management to block fraud earlier in the process before it happens or the claim payment is done.

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Kizito Makatiani is the Founder and CEO of Turnkey Africa Ltd.
Twitter: @KizitoMakatiani / LinkedIn: Kizito Makatiani

Bancassurance Not the End of Insurance Agencies

By Brian Abajah
It’s been 10 years since bancassurance made its debut in Kenya with the awarding of the very first insurance agency licence to CBA Bank back in 2004. By definition, bancassurance is simply the offering of insurance products by banks, and as per banking regulations, banks can only act as agents of insurance companies and not underwriters or providers of insurance.

Initially, traditional brokers and agents were not comfortable with the idea of having to share their space with banks. However, brokers seemed to be more for the idea than agents believing that the entry of banks into the insurance sector will increase retail outlets and raise the penetration of insurance products countrywide. The agents on the other hand were not for it, as to them bancassurance represented a loss in placements and commissions.

It does seem these initial fears were justified as current statistics reveal a disruptive shift in the insurance landscape since the entry of bancassurance. According to the Insurance Regulatory Authority, the insurance sector in Kenya has, in the last 5 years, witnessed an increase in dropout of agents and a considerable reduction in new agent registrations. In 2013, there were 593 new registered agents down from 1,085 new agents registered in 2012. Over 1,900 agents dropped out of the industry in 2013 up from 758 agents who dropped out in 2012.

While other factors including financial constraints, pressure to meet targets and low commissions, might have also contributed to the declining numbers, the main threat being alluded to by many agents is bancassurance. Agents also see bancassurance as the main reason why insurers are reviewing commissions and customers are getting a raw deal, with the banks not giving them a choice on which policy to buy and where to do it.
The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has had to step in following numerous complaints from agents and are coming up with guidelines to help regulate bancassurance business. The draft guidelines, though still in the pipeline, come with stricter rules for the banks with such clauses as: “The bancassurance agent shall not induce or compel a prospect to buy an insurance product of its principal. All prospects shall be allowed to decide out of their own volition, which insurance product they wish to buy and from which insurer.”
But let’s consider the statistics — as per recent estimates, insurance penetration in Kenya stands at 3.4% — the 4th highest in Africa after Mauritius (6%), Namibia (7.2%) and South Africa (14.1%). If one considers this low penetration, then it is prudent to say that there is still a lot of ground to be covered and development of alternative distribution channels such as bancassurance catering to the untapped market segments must be encouraged rather than vilified. Agents, instead of looking at banks as the enemy, should seek ways to work with or alongside them as well as devise ingenious ways to reach the over 96% of the population still untapped. In many countries around the world, India being a great example, the distribution of insurance by banks using their branch network has proven to be a very effective channel of increasing insurance penetration.

Kenya’s insurance market is potentially worth over 2 billion dollars, but only a fraction of this is realized, largely due to lack of awareness as well as other cultural and technological reasons. While bancassurance might initially have been seen to be taking away business from traditional intermediaries, in the long term it has actually expanded the market and created enough business for resilient intermediaries. And even if bancassurance ends up with a commanding market share, the portion for the traditional intermediaries will still be considerably larger compared to the cumulative business they previously managed.

Moreover, traditional intermediaries still have a pivotal role to play especially when it comes to servicing complex insurance products. Banks have limited insurance business experience and are mainly able to handle straightforward products that are simple to explain and service. There is still considerable room in the market for the professional intermediary. Consequently, it makes more sense to put aside the current rivalry and focus on harnessing the collective experience, strategic creativity and innovation of insurers, banks, brokers and agents towards solving our persistent penetration challenge.


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The writer Brian Abajah is the Business Development Manager, Turnkey Africa Ltd