ICEA's entrepreneurial approach to coverage of unconventional risks, its innovative service delivery and distribution system, and its unrelenting pursuit of excellence - underpined by its sizeable asset base - are defining its growth strategy in the new millennium

ICEA’s profile no doubt is in itself a statement of the stage the company has reached in its evolution, from its humble beginnings in the 1960s - when it emerged as a respectable, albeit medium size, newly established player - to the major market player it has since become. 

Building on our proud heritage

The company has proud roots.  For this, ICEA has much to thank its original founders - New Zealand Insurance Company, Welfare Insurance Company and Eagle Star Insurance Company - for their careful nurturing which lent robustness to its institutional make-up, and has since continued to define its corporate profile.

As the reader leafs through the pages of this pamphlet it is hoped that he or she will get a sense of ICEA’s growing stature as a leading insurer not only in Kenya but also in East Africa. This pamphlet captures and portrays images of ICEA’s institutional diversity ........the range and strength of its brands; its growth trends; regional reach; and its financial standing and performance.

This has been part of a natural progression. Its genesis was the company’s pioneering role in group life and pensions schemes - a sector in which it now maintains an unassailable lead. In those early days of its existence, the company was also engaged in a parallel endeavor to systematically develop its general insurance business. It was thus to eventually emerge as one of the foremost general insurers of not only the corporate type mega risks but also of the more traditional commercial lines in non-life business.

A new strategy for corporate repositioning

Along the way, ICEA was to embark on a wide range of initiatives geared towards realizing its strategic vision of transforming itself into a one-stop provider of insurance products and services.  Looking back, it is evident that these efforts have been immensely rewarded.  It was out of this endeavor that the company today has product offerings that, at one end, encompass the entire spectrum of traditional lines of business and, at the other, the more unconventional,  specialized range. The latter includes distinctive products that embrace some of the latest solutions in insurance coverage, at both the corporate and personal risk levels.

The marketing and distribution of these products, and the delivery of the company’s abiding commitment to continuously move services closer to its customers and business partners, have been given a new impetus by an enhanced infrastructure that now includes a country-wide network, intricately interwoven with the help of innovative online IT connectivity.  This fairly extensive branch network, anchored on our unique market outreach concept, is expected to serve as a platform for future growth of personal lines and individual type life assurance products. 

Expanding our regional reach

The other important dimension in ICEA’s ever-broadening business base, also potently brought out in this portrayal of its corporate life, is its subsidiary, Insurance Company of East Africa (Uganda) Limited.  ICEA (U) was established in the year 2000.  Its launch was an important milestone, which underlined the company’s desire to achieve greater geographical diversification; and which, implicitly, was also a precursor of other investment initiatives in the East African region. It is particularly pleasing to note its impressive rapid market penetration in its formative stage, a situation that inevitably gives us cause for optimism that this subsidiary will in due course contribute its fair share towards boosting the gross income of the ICEA group, strengthening its balance sheet, and in the final analysis contributing significantly towards consolidation of the group’s position as a regional leader in insurance services.