Insurance innovation in Africa beyond ideas, PoCs & pilots

Adedamola Oloko, CoFounder, InsurTech Business Series, Nigeria

Over the past decade, insurers and ecosystem players across the continent have made visible commitments to innovation. FSD Africa’s BimaLab has supported early-stage InsurTech ventures. ZEP-RE has launched accelerator programs to stimulate regional collaboration. AXA Mansard’s Innovation Exchange has opened pathways for startup–corporate experimentation. Leading insurers have established digital units, venture partnerships and driven transformation initiatives around modernizing distribution, underwriting and claims in collaboration with InsurTechs like Naked, Curacel, Inclusivity, Pineapple.

The intent is not lacking. The ambition is visible. Yet the uncomfortable truth remains: while innovation activity is increasing, scaled execution is still rare.

Recent data reinforces this reality. In the 2025 State of Insurance Innovation in Nigeria survey which engaged 45 senior leaders including CEOs, CTOs and Heads of Strategy; 87% of executives expressed willingness to collaborate on shared innovation solutions, and 69% confirmed readiness to commit resources. The appetite is strong.

However, the same survey highlights persistent barriers: 78% cite cost of implementation as the biggest constraint, 56% point to regulatory challenges, and many remain uncertain about how to measure return on innovation investment. In other words, the problem is not strategic alignment, it is operational execution.

Where execution breaks down

In my work supporting insurer–startup collaborations and internal innovation programs, three recurring breakdown points are evident:

Innovation is often disconnected from core business priorities: Accelerators generate pilots. Innovation units test solutions. But unless underwriting, claims, or distribution leaders are structurally accountable for adoption, initiatives struggle to move beyond experimentation.

Internal absorption capacity is underestimated: Without change management, retraining, process redesign and revised incentives, even strong solutions stall at the interface between new tools and legacy culture. The result is friction rather than transformation.

Traditional governance models slow non-traditional partnerships: Startups are evaluated using frameworks designed for established vendors. Decision cycles stretch beyond the runway of innovators and momentum is lost.

This execution gap carries real consequences. Across markets, insurance penetration remains low, trust gaps persist, and acquisition costs continue to rise. The Nigerian survey, for example, shows that executives rank customer acquisition, KYC and distribution as top innovation priorities while fraud management, eKYC and shared claims exchange emerge as prime areas for collaboration. These are not abstract opportunities; they are pressure points directly tied to growth, cost efficiency and credibility.

What effective execution looks like?

Encouragingly, examples across the continent show that the path forward is not theoretical.

Discovery’s model demonstrates how tightly integrated technology, behavioral science, and product design can drive measurable customer engagement and profitability. Britam, Alpha Direct, Hollard and Old Mutual have shown how digital distribution and ecosystem partnerships can unlock new segments when aligned to core strategy. Programs such as BimaLab and ZEP-RE’s accelerator highlight the power of structured collaboration but sustained value depends on insurers embedding outcomes into their operating models; something AXA Mansard’s Innovation Exchange Program seems to have gotten right.

To move beyond ideas, pilots and proofs of concept, four execution shifts are essential:

Anchor innovation to defined business outcomes: Every initiative should tie directly to measurable KPIs eg: loss ratios, fraud reduction, onboarding time, claims SLAs, or distribution growth.

Create joint ownership: Every pilot should have a clear executive sponsor within a core business unit, responsible not just for testing but for scale too.

Fund innovation with stage-gated pathways to scale: Stage-gated funding models tied to defined commercial metrics reduces uncertainty around ROI and create decision clarity.

Embrace collaborative infrastructure: The survey’s identification of shared eKYC rails and Claims Database reflects a powerful insight: some challenges are industry-wide. Shared utilities can reduce cost barriers and regulatory friction while accelerating adoption.

Ultimately, solving Africa’s insurance innovation problem is less about creativity and more about consistency. The sector does not lack ideas. It does not lack startups. It does not lack executive intent. What it must overcome is the institutional inertia embedded in “we’ve always done it this way.”

In my view, insurance innovation on the continent will be defined by those who build the internal discipline, collaborative frameworks and execution capability to consistently translate the right ideas into scalable, measurable business value.