Ep313 Mikir Shah CEO Africa Specialty Risks: Creating new Markets

**Mark Geoghegan** (0:03)
I'm Mark Geoghegan, and you're listening to The Voice of Insurance podcast, produced in association with AdvantageGo, now part of Sapiens, enabling enterprise scale underwriting through a single pane of glass.
This podcast was a really satisfying one to make, because it is unrelentingly positive in its outlook, and highlights how insurance can underwrite its own sustainable growth by being in the right place at the right time. The promise of Africa is alluring. 54 countries, a vast landmass with huge untapped resources, a young population, growing trade that is now freeing up, and massive potential economic development. But it's not at all easy in practice to enable and harness that growth. Many have tried, got it wrong, and ultimately withdrawn. So when I meet someone who has brought together the best of Lloyds and other specialty markets to bring sophisticated insurance products to these and other developing markets, I really want to find out how they've gone about it. Mikir Shah is the charismatic CEO of Africa Specialty Risks, ASR, a fast growing business which has just secured support from growth investor Vitruvian Partners. Mikir is a Kenyan who combines actuarial training with long experience in investment banking, and so comes to the insurance industry with a unique perspective. In this relaxed interview, we run through ASR's strategy to bring corporate specialty insurance to developing markets through the combination of localized underwriting and advanced technology. Mikir is irrepressibly positive, very smart and very friendly, and shares his insights and hard-won knowledge extremely freely. By the end of the next half hour, I guarantee you'll be feeling as positive about the prospects for African and other emerging markets as he is.
Enjoy the podcast. Mikir, welcome to The Voice of Insurance.

**Mikir Shah** (1:50)
Thank you, Mark, and thanks for having me.

**Mark Geoghegan** (1:52)
We were just having a quick conversation before I hit record on this, that we have had encounters over the time, over the last probably more than 11 or 12 years. I don't think we've ever met personally, but we're just remedying that, so that's good.

**Mikir Shah** (2:04)
But thanks for coming to our offices as well. It's great.

**Mark Geoghegan** (2:06)
Well, I mean, you're in the right place. I mean, if it was outside of EC3, I might get lost. But if it's on Leadenhall Street, yes, it's fine. I know where that is.

**Mikir Shah** (2:16)
Thank you. Diagonally opposite Lloyd's, it's the right place for us to be.

**Mark Geoghegan** (2:20)
It's absolutely the right place to be. So Mikir, for anyone out there who's listening, who doesn't know you, why don't you just do what we all do in insurance. Give us a quick run through of your pot of history of your CV and your resume to date and tell us how you got into insurance in the first place. It was a good place to start.

**Mikir Shah** (2:35)
Well, I'll try not to bore you, but I'm a Kenyan. I studied in the UK and I trained as an actuary. But then I went to investment banking. I did many years in investment banking.

**Mark Geoghegan** (2:44)
What possessed you? I think they pay better.

**Mikir Shah** (2:47)
I think it suits my personality better. I think it was more me.
I focused on developing markets as well as developed markets in investment banking. The last role was head of UK insurance at Barclays as well as head of figure cross Africa for them, when Absa was part of the group. I came out and actually thought I would go back to Kenya and create a new business with the rest of my family. However, I got a call to come back and help Mutual in their expansion across Africa, which I did. Actually, that's been the genesis of-

**Mark Geoghegan** (3:14)
Mutual is a South African company, isn't it?

**Mikir Shah** (3:16)
That's right, yes. Julian Roberts was the CEO at the time, who I've known for many years, and he just wanted some help to get a translation across the line in Africa as they're expanding their African footprint.

**Mark Geoghegan** (3:26)
So, brings up to date, how did you get to Africa Specialty Risks and how did that all come about?

**Mikir Shah** (3:31)
Well, the story continues because it was actually Julian who asked what is the big gap in Africa?
I actually explained to him the biggest gap in Africa was the provision of corporate and specialty insurance for businesses across the continent. There was a dearth of it. So, you couldn't really put up a new sugar plant, for example, in Kenya and expect the insurances to be available within a week, which they would be in the West. But in Africa, you have to wait six to eight weeks for even a quote to come back. Then the global insurers would only cover some of the risks that they should be covering, and they'd be charging a very high price for it.