Walk into any room of young Kenyans and mention “life insurance.” The response is telling.
Attention shifts. Engagement drops. It’s not indifference, it’s experience. For this generation, insurance means opaque paperwork, elusive claims processes, and products designed for a different era entirely.
The Challenge Nobody Wanted to Name
The industry has long grappled with a difficult truth: young people view insurance with deep scepticism.
This isn’t a knowledge gap. It’s a trust deficit built on observation. They’ve watched family members navigate complex claims. They’ve encountered policies requiring expert interpretation to understand. They’ve witnessed premiums increase while coverage seemingly contracts.
Meanwhile, they trust M-Pesa with their finances because the platform never penalises them for asking questions. They invest in “chama” savings groups because the money trail is transparent and accessible.
Kenya’s insurance penetration sits at 2.8%. The industry has spent years strategising about “reaching young people.”
The reality? Young people need insurance products that reflect their lived experience.
A Different Approach to Innovation
For five years, the Association of Kenya Insurers and Zydii have taken a bold approach: amplifying the voices of the industry’s youngest professionals.
The AKI Future Leaders of Insurance competition challenges professionals aged 21-36 with a clear mandate: Design a tech-enabled life insurance product you would purchase yourself.
Not incremental improvements. Not cosmetic updates. Fundamental reimagining.
The results have been transformative.
Innovation That Challenges Convention
The winning concepts from the 2025 competition represent a departure from traditional insurance models. Solutions like Bima 360 and LifeCover ChatPay deliver comprehensive life insurance through WhatsApp, meeting customers where they already communicate.
Affordability challenges are addressed through innovative structures like Data Life Cover, featuring micro-premium models integrated with daily necessities such as data purchases. On the operational side, AI-powered Customer Data Platforms like BimaLink eliminate data silos for personalized service delivery, while LeadGen+PAYS transforms sales approaches by connecting agents exclusively with pre-qualified, engaged prospects.
The message is unmistakable: through innovative thinking, advanced technology, and deep understanding of Kenya’s digital-first consumer, insurance is evolving toward accessibility, credibility, and market relevance.
The Foundation: Professional Development With Zydii
Zydii’s partnership with this competition goes deeper. Daily, insurance professionals on the platform advance their expertise in customer experience, persona development, digital transformation, data strategy, and emerging technologies.
The training is built by African experts and trainers who’ve built businesses across the continent, teaching approaches tailored for African markets. The scenarios resonate. The examples connect. The strategies translate to Monday morning implementation.
The Future Leaders competition transforms this learning from theory into practice, bridging the gap between understanding customer-centric design and building products customers actually adopt, between comprehending AI capabilities and deploying them for grassroots accessibility.
The Broader Implications
The AKI Future Leaders competition transcends annual presentations. It demonstrates how African industries evolve in the modern era.
This year’s concepts will become next quarter’s products. Those products will reshape how millions of Kenyans approach family protection. That transformation creates space for further innovation.
This is how meaningful change occurs: not top-down, not gradually, not cautiously. Rapidly. From within. By professionals with vision and determination.
Building Innovation Capacity
The same platform driving breakthrough thinking in Kenya’s insurance sector can catalyse transformation in your organisation.
Zydii’s 70+ Africa-focused courses don’t simply transfer skills; they cultivate the bold thinking that’s currently reshaping entire industries.
Let’s go: zydii.com | Hit us up: +254 717 258 305 | Email: support@zydii.co