Jihan Abass is the founder of Lami Technologies, a tech platform company dealing in digital insurance products.
The entrepreneur founded the company after an interaction with a cafe attendant in Mombasa who didn’t have a medical insurance.
Jihan invested her entire savings in the company that helps institutions such as banks digitize their insurance products.
Here is her story as narrated by WoK.
Background
Speaking in an interview on Al Jazeera English, Jihan noted that the idea of setting up the company came after an interaction with a waiter at a cafe in Mombasa.
She was perplexed to learn that he did not hold a medical insurance, and made the move to make insurances easily accessible.
It was then when Jihan used her savings to set up Lami Technologies in January 2020.
“I went into this rabbit hole of insurance, doing research, trying to understand how many people have access, how many people buy these products and why people are not buy them,” she said.
Lami Technologies gives insurance companies and other institutions such as banks a digital platform to sell their products.
“In Kenya there’s more than 50 insurance companies but the penetration level is less than 3 percent. The bigger problem was really the lack of technological infrastructure but that’s what Lami is,” Jihan explained.
The company’s first product is Griffin, Kenya’s first digital car insurance app.
“We started with car insurance because we felt it was an easier way to access the market with a product that people buy on a day-to-day basis
“It took less that two minutes to buy your policy, it was something that was considered revolutionary in the market that we are,” Jihan said.
No sales
After launching the app, most Kenyans would download it but the company recorded no sales as most people did not trust how easy getting insurance had been made.
Jihad explained that most people are used to the long process that involves a lot of paperwork.
“When we first launched the Griffin app, you have all this excitement, the first couple of weeks you have thousands of downloads but you don’t see sales
“People are used to being asked to send documents and fill so many forms. When you tell them about the app, it’s something different that they don’t even trust the process itself,” she said.
Griffin has worked with major companies such as SkyGarden and Sendy.
