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Games and mobile insurance: a new frontier for insuring the poor in Kenya

Poor people in Kenya are acutely aware of the risks they and their families face every day. But they see insurance as a luxury for rich people. This short film follows one attempt to use human-centered design to find out how to engage the poor. The team explores whether interactive games and entertainment on the mobile phone can be used to engage customers with insurance products.

“Gaming and having fun is really a new frontier for financial services,” says Peter Gross, Africa regional director for MicroEnsure.

The ambitions for what games can do for insuring the poor goes well beyond Nairobi’s slums—potentially to 17 different markets in Africa through the partnership MicroEnsure has with Airtel, one of the top mobile providers in the region, and well beyond.

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