Our Marine Cargo Insurance Platform is a cloud-based marketplace that enables the purchase and issuance of Marine Cargo Insurance Certificates in minutes. It automates the process of underwriting insurance for your goods thereby affording you the convenience and speed necessary to conduct business in today’s digital world safely and securely.
Practically anyone involved in the logistics and import business, from importers to their suppliers, clearing agents, freight forwarders, insurance intermediaries and the insurers themselves.
The platform allows importers, their agents and their suppliers to secure their goods from anywhere in the world, at any time of day. As an importer, you can use the platform directly or have your insurance agent or broker purchase insurance on your behalf.
The Quick Quote feature allows for your agent or broker to obtain and relay quotations to you at a moment’s notice thereby giving you the opportunity to plan and decide on the most appropriate pricing, timing and choice of insurer for your consignment.
All goods and commodities allowed into the country, over 5,500 specific categories.
Currently the platform accommodates all importable goods listed out on the Kenya Revenue Authority’s East African Community Common Tariff Handbook. However, some categories are subject to underwriter and insurance industry business rules and regulations. If in doubt, please seek more information from your insurance agent or insurance company contact person.
All forms of traditional, mobile and funds transfer modes of payment.
The platform’s payments interface allows users to pay premiums using a variety of payment methods including Mobile Money (MPesa, Airtel Money, YuCash), Bank Transfers on TT, EFT and RTGS, as well as credit cards including Visa and MasterCard.
For Mobile Money payments including MPesa and Airtel Money as well as credit card payments, receipt of payment is acknowledged almost instantaneously and the certificate can be obtained as soon as payment confirmation is received and entered into the payment solution interface.
For RTGS, turnaround time is usually within half an hour while for Telegraphic Transfers and Electronic Funds Transfers, payment confirmation and certificate availability is highly dependent on your bank’s arrangements but should take no longer than 48 hours from the time your authorize the payment transaction.
Clients can charge marine cargo insurance premiums against existing credit facilities with their insurers, also commonly referred to as Open Cover Arrangements. The platform allows for credit/large clients to buy insurance against their credit facilities, once the clients are set up on the platform by their relationship managers. The agreed upon credit terms apply.
You will need to have soft copies of the following documents:
While the IDF and PVCoC are not mandatory in order to obtain Marine Cargo Insurance on the platform, having and uploading them onto the platform allows for the creation of a virtual repository of all documents relating to a particular consignment thereby providing ample documentation in case of future claims.
The documents can be in any of a wide range of formats including Portable Document Format (PDF), Images (JPEG, PNG, BMP), Microsoft Word Document or other digital and clearly discernible/readable format.
The Platform provides a dashboard tracking all Marine Cargo Insurance transactions and quotes obtained on the platform. The dashboard provides details of Type and Value of Goods Insured, Port of Origin and Destination Date Insured, and Premiums paid. The Platform also retains a copy of the Marine Cargo Insurance Certificate for future reference.
Absolutely.
We utilize a Cloud Services Provider that considers user and data security to be of the highest priority. As a client, you will benefit from a data center and network architecture built to meet the requirements of the most security-sensitive organizations including financial institutions, government agencies and healthcare providers.
Whether at rest or in transit, your documents, data and transactions are handled, transmitted and stored using state of the art encryption and security architecture.
Maintaining customer trust is an ongoing commitment and we strive to inform customers of the privacy and data security policies, practices and technologies that we put in place and continue to upgrade.
No. You need not worry about software installation or upgrades. The Marine Cargo Insurance Platform is hosted entirely online and does not require any software installations or upgrades. Much like with any online e-commerce platform, this also means that at any one time, you are transacting on the most up to date, most secure version of the platform.
Certainly. However, it is advisable to install the latest version of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Vivaldi and Internet Explorer 8 or above for a satisfactory experience.
Sure. You can submit a claim using the platform’s claim submission interface. The submission is received, reviewed and one of our agents will get in touch with you to walk you through the claims process at the earliest possible opportunity.
The most common cause for this issue is pop-up blockers stopping the opening of a new tab that will display the certificate. Ensure that you allow pop-ups from our website and all should be fine.
Further, ensure that you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader and that all updates have been installed.
If you still encounter problems, kindly report the issue through our Online Issue Reporting tool or call our helpline on +25420 Help Me.
Section 20 sub-section 4 provides as follows: S.20 (4):
A person who contravenes the provisions of the subsection (1) or (2) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding ten thousand shillings or to imprisonment not exceeding one year or to both.
The commencement date is 1st of January 2017
Yes. This will be communicated in the public domain by the State Department of Shipping and Maritime Affairs in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
First, Compliance with the laws of Kenya is mandatory.
Second, it is not always true that pre-negotiated rates with foreign insurers are cheaper or offer better cover than Kenyan marine insurance cover. This can be established by comparison.
Third, Kenyan marine cargo insurance cover is normally Class A (Comprehensive), while normally foreign marine cargo insurance cover either does not exist at all or is a lower, cheaper Class because the foreign Seller naturally maximizes his profit.
The directive by the Cabinet Secretary to the Treasury, in Paragraph 67 of the Budget Speech read on 8th June 2016, which will be effected in The Finance Bill 2016/2017, requires all claims to be settled within 30 days from receipt of a claim. This is good for Kenya.
Yes. One can seek exemption from the Commissioner of Insurance. Also, personal effects are exempted from Section 20 of The Insurance Act.
The scope of the cover depends on YOUR choice as an importer.
Marine Cargo Insurance is subject to the Institute Cargo Clauses (ICC) A, B, C, as well as Inland Transit clauses, which cover risks during transportation over land. Cargo can be covered from (1) Port to Port, (2) Door to Door, or (3) Warehouse to Warehouse, depending on the choice of the importer.
The Institute Cargo Clauses (ICC) are classified into 3 as follows:
What is NOT covered by any of the Institute Cargo Clauses:
In Kenya, 35 Insurance companies duly registered by The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) offer Marine Cargo Insurance.
All types of imported cargo must be covered, except personal effects.