Prudential opens Africa Regional Headquarters in Nairobi
Prudential plc (Prudential) today celebrated the opening of its Africa Regional Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The life insurer moved its Africa Regional Headquarters from London to Nairobi to provide its businesses across Africa with greater support and to be closer to its customers, partners and distributors on the continent.
Mr Wilf Blackburn, Prudential’s Regional CEO of Insurance Growth Markets said the new Regional Headquarters in Nairobi underscores the company’s deep commitment to Africa.
“Our purpose is to help people get the most out of life. In line with this, we want to make healthcare and financial security more accessible and affordable to the people of Africa as we grow our businesses on the continent.
“Today, we are serving more than 1.7 million customers in Africa through a distribution network of more than 13,000 agents and 600 bank branches. There are so many more people we can benefit with our solutions and services given the large protection and health gaps in Africa,” said Mr Blackburn.
Celebrating the occasion with Prudential was British High Commissioner to Kenya, Her Excellency Jane Marriot, Principal Secretary of the Treasury and National Planning Ministry, Julius Muia, and Nairobi International Financial Centre (NIFC) CEO Oscar Njuguna.
Investing in people and technology to accelerate growth
As part of Prudential’s growth roadmap in Africa, the life insurer is investing in people and technology to build the capacity to serve more customers on the continent.
The life insurer sees demand for insurance growing across Africa where the population is expected to double to more than 2 billion by 2050. Today, Africa has an insurance penetration rate of 2.7 per cent and its out-of-pocket spend for healthcare is almost double that of Asia at USD6 billion.
Key to Prudential’s growth strategy is Pulse by Prudential, an all-in-one app powered by artificial intelligence that offers holistic health and wealth management solutions to consumers.
Pulse is currently available in all eight markets of Prudential across Africa. Through Pulse, the insurer aims to reach a wider group of people in particular the young and digitally savvy Africans, to support them in attaining better health outcomes and achieving their financial goals.
Prudential is also investing in developing local African talents and building its leadership bench strength to drive its business ambitions on the continent.
“We have always focused on developing local leaders and managers in Africa. Today, all our eight country CEOs are Africans who have deep knowledge of the local culture, and business environment. We believe it is important to have local talent driving our business and we are committed to support our people with development opportunities to help them grow and succeed”, said Mr Blackburn.
Prudential started its African journey in Ghana in 2013. Today, it is present in eight countries across Eastern and Central, Francophone, Western and Southern, and Northern Africa. The eight countries are Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria.
