Mobile Technology and Dissemination of Information in the Kenyan Insurance Industry

Abstract

It is estimated that only 15 percent of Kenyans have made plans for retirement, and many people fall into poverty once they retire. A 2018 survey by the Unclaimed Property Asset register found that insurance companies hold 25 percent of unclaimed funds with 10 percent belonging to pensioners. This was attributed to a lack of effective information flow between insurance companies and the customers and also between various departments in the insurance companies. Further, there were numerous cases of loss of documents and files and certain files were untraceable in the departments. This paper investigates ways in which mobile technology influences dissemination of information for processing pension claims in the insurance industry. An improvement in dissemination of information for processing of pension claims can carry out a key function in increasing percentage of Kenyans making plans for retirement. The study deployed a descriptive study design. The target population in this study was 561 pensioners in Jubilee Insurance and 8 heads of pensions business, finance, legal services, internal audit, operations, information and communication technology, actuary, business development and strategy and business development departments. The sample size of this study was obtained by use of Krejcie and Morgan formula of determining sample size. As a result of the small number of heads of departments, they were not sampled. Through systematic sampling a sample of 288 pensioners was selected from the list of pensioners in Jubilee Insurance. The findings from the study led to a conclusion that mobile application has a positive and significant association with dissemination of information for pension claims processing in Jubilee Insurance. It was further revealed that text messages have a positive and significant influence on dissemination of information. Concerning unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) it was concluded that it has a positive and significant influence on dissemination of information. The study findings also revealed that voice calls have a positive and significant influence on dissemination of information for pension claims processing in Jubilee Insurance.