Promoting a new business concept has its rewards and challenges, as Hassan Bashir [pictured], CEO of Nairobi-based Takaful Insurance for Africa, has found out.
The revenue is flowing in much faster than he ever expected, although compared to his conventional insurance peers, TIA isspending more on staff training, most of whom have never had any experience in the Takaful field.
The greatest emphasis has been on thetraining of TIA's agents, who are the human face of Takaful in Kenya and have been driving its expansion away from the main cities of Nairobi and Mombassa.
Bashir told The Islamic Globe: "We have trained 150 agents so far but have settled on just 30 on the basis of their understanding of the Takaful concept."
TIA's Takaful training is a top-up to mandatory qualifications an insurance agent should have from the College of Insurance in Kenya or a globally recognized insurance certification institution to sell insurance products in the country.
Bashir is optimistic that soon Kenyanacademic bodies will be able to produce the talent needed by the indigenousIslamic finance industry and hoped that Kenyan Islamic financial professionals would be able to spearhead the industry's push not only into the Kenyan hinterland,but throughout the nascent Islamic finance industry in East Africa.
Part of the professionalization of the nextgeneration of Takaful specialists in Kenya has been the development of afocused Takaful module in the College of Insurance's diploma and certificatecourses. This has been mirrored in general Islamic finance by the Kenya Schoolof Monetary Studies which has introduced a diploma in Islamic finance to itscurriculum.
In New Year Strathmore University will alsointroduce an Islamic finance diploma and the University of Nairobi is addingsignificant Islamic finance content to its Bachelor of Commerce degree in thenext academic year. This degree will also have an insurance and Takaful major.
© The Islamic Globe 2011
