Mandate

The Authority's mandate is to regulate, supervise and develop the insurance industry in Kenya.

Goals

1. Promote consumer education and protection

2. promote an inclusive, competititve and stable insurance industry.

3. Offer quality customer service.

The National Development Agenda for IRA

1. Role of the Insurance in National Development

Insurance industry contributes to national development through providing broader insurance products and services, fostering enterpreneurial attitudes, encouraging investment, innovation, market dynamism and competition, offer social protection alongside the state the state, releasing pressure on public sector finance; enhancing financial antermediation , creating liquidity and mobilizing savings.

As major institutional investors, insurers pool resources and channel them towards investment opportunities thereby facilitating firms to access capital which contributes to national development.

2. Policy Framework

As one of the key pillars of the financial services sector, the insurance industry is indeed central to realization of financial services objectives as set out in the Vision 2030, a long-term development blueprint for the Country. With the aim of deepening financial services and enhancing access to and inclusion, the Vision 2030 recognizes that as the economy expands and disposable incomes rise, there will be growth in insurable assets thereby generating demand for insurance services.

To achieve this, the Vision 2030 emphasizes the need to improve efficiency and outreach of insurance service providers, which can be achieved through consolidation, public education campaign, and investment in new technology that will enable the sector widen its reach and coverage at minimal costs. In turn, this will result in increased contribution of insurance industry to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

3. Consumer Protection

With promulgation of the Constitution 2010 and enactment of the Consumer Protection Act 2012 among other laws, focus on the consumer has and will continue to considerably gain momentum. The implications of these changes is shifts in the nature of rights and responsibilities of a regulator viz a viz consumers of insurance services as regards access to information as well as standards of service delivery.

A central information problem that insurance consumers face is judging product quality due to the complexity of the contract, the contingent nature of many of the services provided (e.g. claims handling and payments) and the fact that services may be provided over time (e.g. investments). As a result, product quality is difficult to ascertain prior to purchase hence the need for regulatory oversight given implication of a consumer driven market and intermediation.