The holy grail of microinsurance: voluntary take-up

Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa are unable to grow insurance markets beyond group or bundled microinsurance products. This presentation looks at why this is the case and how it undermines the contribution of insurance markets for households, businesses and governments. It explores how the latest wave of technological innovation is helping to overcoming this challenge and how it can be best applied to support the voluntary take-up of microinsurance products.

Doubell Chamberlain is the founder and managing director of Cenfri in South Africa. He has extensive experience in microinsurance, AML/CFT, distribution of financial services and regulatory framework design. He has worked extensively across the developing world, including Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Southeast Asia. He is also the chairperson of the governing board of the Microinsurance Network (MiN).

David Saunders is an engagement manager at Cenfri leading their knowledge management activities. In this role, he is responsible for bringing together and packaging Cenfri's work in financial inclusion, supporting projects across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. He has worked with Cenfri’s research teams to produce and share knowledge generated through Cenfri’s Making Access Possible (MAP) diagnostic programme, the insight2impact data facility and microinsurance and retail payments thematic work.