Regardless of the galloping improve in monetary inclusion in Africa seen in latest instances, insurance coverage penetration stays low on the continent.
However ETAP, an insurance coverage platform that makes use of gamified driving pattern-based insurance coverage to optimize the worth proposition and speed up insurance coverage penetration believes that Africa, significantly Nigeria, has all of the substances which can be wanted to realize considerably deepened insurance coverage penetration and particularly, auto insurance coverage penetrations.
In a Enterprise Half Hour Programme by Nairametrics, Ibrahim Babalola, CEO, ETAP defined how the insurance coverage is enabling drivers to insure their vehicles in 90 seconds, in addition to make claims and have them settled in three minutes utilizing superior cell telematics to indicate drivers how they carry out and reward them for driving safely.
He defined that ETAP, an acronym that stands for ‘Straightforward as Taking A Image’ is constructed on the assumption that automotive insurance coverage must be that straightforward, including that the corporate is an auto-focused insurance coverage know-how that’s backed by world traders just like the Toyota firm in Japan and different world traders.
“Drivers get secure driving factors each time they don’t drive like a loopy individual on the street and so they can then spend this identical driving level inside the app on petrol, Shoprite vouchers to purchase issues on Jumia, film tickets, espresso, and others.”
“You get a driving rating for each journey that you simply take primarily based on the way you’ve accelerated, the way you break, how you come back if you end up cornering correctly and so forth. and the typical of all of the driving scores that you simply get would straight influence on what your premium could be at renewal. So, the upper your driving rating, the decrease your insurance coverage premium could be.”
He added, “We predict that insurance coverage must be shared worth. Which means suppliers can gamify and incentivize a behavioral shift in prospects such that they’re behaving in a sure method and they are going to be rewarded.
Past this, Babalola defined that ETAP additionally allows flexibility in insuring by permitting subscribers to pay day by day, weekly, month-to-month, or nonetheless they select to. He famous, “Basically, we reimagine how folks view insurance coverage and the way they get pleasure from insurance coverage. By our latest partnership with MTN, we’re in a position to reinforce this as MTN subscribers get to make use of ETAP on their telephones with out knowledge.
He added, “ETAP has raised one of many largest pre-seed funding for an insurance coverage know-how firm in Nigeria at present. Earlier this 12 months, we introduced the pre-seed spherical of $1.5 million, primarily with world traders which can be backing our strategy to fixing this drawback.”
Whereas the insurance coverage market is bedeviled by elements starting from cultural issues to accessibility and availability points when it comes to tips on how to insure vehicles, Babalola famous that ETAP helps to shut the hole by permitting subscribers to navigate the platform through their smartphones.
He mentioned, “If you consider the accessibility drawback when it comes to, how folks entry insurance coverage. For one thing that’s basically necessary, it needs to be a bit extra accessible. I believe we’ve got to know tips on how to get it now as a result of it’s not close to as accessible and there’s a really poor retail distribution which in the end results in that prime buyer acquisition price for the insurance coverage firms.”
In accordance with him, “ETAP automotive insurance coverage merchandise in Nigeria at present use know-how to do a correct threat profiling and provide you with personalised pricing as a result of we predict that no two people have the identical threat profile and consequently no two people ought to pay the identical premium. What you see as you begin to acceptable appropriately profile threat is that much less dangerous prospects would find yourself paying considerably lower than they’re paying.”
Babalola additionally recognized different challenges as; sophisticated and unclear processes related to shopping for insurance coverage and significantly round claims fee, the shortage of an automatic strategy of renewal, very restricted fee flexibility, and no provision of like shared advantages.
Talking on regulatory points within the insurance coverage business, Babalola gave credit score to the insurance coverage regulator for primarily innovating by working with the Nigeria Insurance coverage Affiliation, NIA to create the NIID, a database the place insurance coverage firms should submit insurance policies which can be created and declare to permit regulation enforcement officers simply verify coverage numbers. He nonetheless suggested that enforcement be strengthened to make this work.
Whereas insurance coverage is alleged to be incomplete with out declare fee, ETAP is ready to make the method quite simple for patrons by automating “every little thing, together with the earlier evaluation, which at present, the standard course of is that they may ship any person to your home to take photos of your automotive, or ask you to ship photos of your automotive, which doesn’t essentially present the actual situation of the automotive since you will be sending photos that you simply took final month.”
“You will get your coverage quantity from the app. You get your coverage paperwork in your e-mail in addition to your certificates and every little thing that it is advisable present a policeman.”
On its projection plan for the following 5 to 10 years, Babalola famous that ETAP is working with conventional insurance coverage firms to optimize their merchandise by giving them a few of its know-how to construct on. On the long term, nonetheless, he mentioned the insurtech plans to transcend automotive insurance coverage.
He added, “ETAP will launch in Ghana this quarter and we’re simply wrapping up the finalities in that market. Our plan is to scale very quick, which you see from the kind of traders which have invested in us together with the Toyota Company. So, each nation the place you could have a Toyota presence and the likes of Suzuki, Mitsubishi, and Yamaha are major markets for us to broaden. It’s an enormous alternative due to the penetration.”