Jihan Abass

Jihan Abass (born 1993/1994) is a Kenyan entrepreneur and businesswoman who is the founder and CEO of Lami Insurance Technology, an insurance technology company based in Nairobi, Kenya, and Lami Direct Insurance (a digital vehicle insurance company). Lami, an insuretech startup, hopes to become the premier company powering insurance adoption across Africa by 2030.

Lami was founded in 2019, but the company went live with its offerings in 2020. Its mission was to democratise how insurance is retailed in Africa, starting with Kenya. With over 80% of Kenyans having no insurance scheme whatsoever, and the average insurance penetration in Africa under 3%, there was a clear market gap in the insurance market. It became Lami’s mission to close the gap and make insurance commonplace. Abass's work has been recognized for addressing critical gaps in insurance accessibility across Africa. By leveraging technology. She has simplified the process of obtaining insurance making it more inclusive for underserved populations. Her efforts are particularly significant in regions where insurance penetration is traditionally low.

Quotes

• “Lami is pioneering innovation in the insurance sector, and we are glad to have secured the right partners to help drive insurance uptake across Africa. We are looking to make insurance easily accessible to everyone on the continent, and we will continually be unveiling more products that confirm this resolve.” [1]

• “My perspective on life and the impact I wanted my life to have on the world. I worked in a job where making money was the dominant motivation. For me, that didn’t seem like enough, and it’s also not what I wanted to stand for as a human being. [2]

• “A lot of the time, people are relying on single sources of income, but they’re not insuring those sources of income so, if one thing goes wrong, they lose everything,”[3]

• “A lot of the time, people are relying on single sources of income, but they’re not insuring those sources of income so, if one thing goes wrong, they lose everything,”[4]

• “How can we get insurance to as many people as possible, in the simplest and the easiest way? That’s the main vision for us—is really to create accessibility.”[5]

• “The first step is always to try: get out there and do it” [6]

• “Traction speaks for itself: if you are able to show progress and show results, then people get on board” [7]

• “One of the keys things for me was thinking: how can we provide a safety net for people?” [8]

• I think the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is to trust my gut instinct. Trust your gut when you’re making these decisions, because often, it’s probably the right decision. [9]

• I also think there are still a lot of gender biases within fundraising in general. When we look at our investor split, all our lead investors were women and I think that’s a testament to the fact that women investors are more likely to invest in female founders. [10]

• The main thing is to focus on product market fit and not to spend too much before. Don’t spend on scaling before you’ve found the product market fit. Jihan's word of advice to aspiring founders

• At Lami, we believe that using technology is the key to changing that by building the infrastructure and the rails for insurance products to actually work in a digital ecosystem. [11]