• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Nigerian insurers, others to close gap on claims fraud with Curacel’s $450,000 expansion fund

Insurers see insecurity dimming growth prospect as liability soars

Insurance companies in Nigeria and other African countries are to benefit from Curacel’s $450,000 pre-seed funding for expansion that targets to address issues on claims fraud.

Curacel’s AI-powered system works by figuring out whether a claim is true while detecting and flagging false and fraudulent claims. Apart from serving insurers directly, it creates a link between insurance companies and primary care hospitals, travel agencies, automobile companies, and security outfits.

Nigerian artificial intelligence insurtech startup, Curacel, had announced last week a $450,000 pre-seed raise led by Atlantic Ventures and Consonance, with participation from Kepple Apple Ventures and other African angel investors.

Currently de-risking insurance companies and over 800 hospitals in Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda, Curacel plans to expand into ten other African countries by the end of 2021. Founded in 2016, the startup has popular insurers like Old Mutual, AXA Mansard, and Liberty Health using its technology.

In 2016, Curacel got into the S Factory Pre-acceleration Programme, a spin-off of Start-Up Chile that gave it access to a $15,000 equity-free fund.

Insurance companies in Nigeria have lamented increase case of fake insurance certificates in marine and third-party policies, where billions of naira is lost to fake players.

This led to the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) embarking on technology called the Nigerian Insurance Industry Data Base NIID, which has helped to address reasonably the issues of fake motor policies, but still with a lot of gap.

According to the NIA out of about 12.5 million registered vehicles in Nigeria, only about 5.5, that 58 percent are captured in the NIID, meaning that the rest are driving with fake certificates, a huge fraud to insurers.

On marine business, fraudsters operate from business centres issuing fake marine certificates to where shipping activities are carried out. For example, you could get an Institute Cargo Clauses ICC “C” marine insurance cover which is the minimum marine cover for N2, 500 notwithstanding the Insurance Value. Although the certificates carry the names and logos of registered insurance companies, the companies know nothing about how they are being issued and premiums are not remitted to them, according to report.

In 2016, Curacel got into the S Factory Pre-acceleration Programme, a spin-off of Start-Up Chile that gave it access to a $15,000 equity-free fund.

The SaaS startup provides insurance companies with solutions to automate their claims and limit risks ensuring that they can provide premium services to their clients and still be profitable.

Africa’s insurance penetration is low, below 3 percent, because of ignorance, the state of the economy, and illiteracy. African insurance companies are therefore faced with the task of simultaneously driving adoption and avoiding fraud.