APA Insurance has received a Sh252 million ($2.5 million) from the MasterCard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity.
The funding is meant to increase incomes and well-being of smallholder farmers in Kenya through targeted micro-insurance products. APA is the first insurance company to receive such funding in Kenya.
The funding will go towards enhancing resilience, improving productivity, enhancing innovation, profitability and growth of rural and poor households in Kenya through increased access to financial services by rural populations who are predominantly smallholder farmers.
Apollo Group Chief Executive Officer Ashok Shah said: “This grant is a huge boost to our effort to create sustainable risk solutions and bring financial inclusion to a very important section of our population, the smallholder farmers. It will enable us to support them, to create and protect their hard work and help with their wealth and livelihoods. As a business, we have built a track record of doing this and will continue on this path.”
The project aims at developing and offering bundled insurance products to cushion rural populations against weather and other natural related risks, health related covers, and life insurance to enhance their livelihoods.
Working with financial institutions, it will also develop products offering loans to smallholder farmers and pastoralists.
APA will collaborate with other insurance companies and insurance intermediaries to rapidly develop and nurture this market and significantly increase insurance penetration in the East African region.
The firm will also, together with value chain partners, provide solutions to the communities to address risks across the value chain, and ensure service delivery to the rural communities leading to better productivity and incomes.