The insurance sector has recorded a 22.4 per cent increase in Benefit Payment pushing the numbers from Sh 21 billion in the second quarter of 2017 to over 26 billion in the second quarter of 2018 ended in June.
According to data from the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), the Industry gross premiums written stood at Sh112.39 billion as at end of June 2018 representing an increase of 3.1 per cent from Sh109.05 billion in 2017.
However, the regulator’s data indicates that underwriting results declined significantly in June 2018 to record an underwriting loss of Sh2.67 billion while profit after tax was cut by more than half to record a 54.2 per cent decrease on the same period.
Additionally, the reinsurers’ business volume declined by 5.1 per cent to 9.6 billion in Q2 of 2018 from 10.13 billion in Q2 of 2017. The industry is said to have registered a decline on return on assets and return on equity to close at 0.94 per cent and 3.83 per cent respectively as at end of June 2018 attributed to a fall in profitability.
‘’In the period under review, the general reinsurers underwriting profit fell drastically by 97.3 per cent to KES 13.97 million compared to KES 522.15 million recorded as at end of June 2017.’’ The report shows.
General insurance segment contributed 63.2 per cent of the total industry premiums as at end of June 2018 compared to 66.4 per cent contribution recorded in the same period of the previous year.
