Emerging Insight: Looking beyond traditional distribution channels to develop a nascent insurance market

Mozambique faces high levels of financial exclusion, especially among its majority rural population. In 2014, only 24% of the adult population had a bank account or some other formal financial service. Access to insurance is even lower, with only 3.4% of adults having an insurance product. In addition, many Mozambicans report having a low understanding of what insurance actually means.

NBC Mozambique was founded in this challenging context in 2014, and has since become the country’s first microinsurer. In 2017, we started collaborating with NBC Mozambique to identify and secure partnerships to distribute microinsurance in the country. Because traditional insurance distribution channels do not exist in Mozambique’s nascent market, NBC Mozambique assessed a wide range of possible channels including financial providers, NGOs and post offices.

Each of these channels offered a different strategic fit for NBC Mozambique. After finishing its market research, it decided to choose two very different and unconventional channels: funeral parlours and solar power providers. NBC Mozambique hopes that this combination will help it to reach urban, low-income customers as well as the underserved population in rural parts of the country.

Curious about how NBC Mozambique fared with these channels, and what challenges it had to overcome? Read our latest Case Brief: NBC Mozambique.