Biographie

Sumayya is a lawyer who combines commercial legal experience with executive experience in various sectors including oil & gas and takaful islamic insurance. She is the CEO of Takaful Insurance of Africa Limited, the first and only fully fledged Takaful operator in East and Central Africa, which offers shari’ah compliant risk management and participatory insurance products built on ethical principles. She has been an advisor in the areas of oil & gas, law, leadership and governance. As CEO of Takaful Sumayya is focusing on deepening penetration of takaful across different sectors and demographics. This is no mean task in an environment where insurance is regarded either as a grudge purchase, to be bought only if required by law, or a luxury purchase for the few who can afford it. Part of Sumayya’s objective is to create wide awareness of what takaful is and how it differs from conventional insurance. That Takaful provides an alternative transparent, ethical, risk management solution. The model, which is Shari’ah compliant, is based on the principles of solidarity, cooperation and mutual assistance. The ‘participants’ as they are called, mutually insure each other; Takaful as the underwriter is the agent of the participants, in which role it handles the technical underwriting, investment of the funds, management of claims and handles the administrative aspects. Funds remaining in the risk fund after paying claims and providing reserves are paid back to eligible participants as ‘surplus’. As Sumayya says “We don’t own the risk fund hence have no incentive not to pay”. Sumayya recently launched Takaful’s digital transformation plan to broaden and deepen digitalisation for the benefit of the customers. This led to the launch of Takaful Mkononi during the 10-year anniversary celebrations in January of 2021. Takaful Mkononi is an app which puts the convenience of purchasing covers and fixing claims in the participant’s hand. “We want to serve the client where they are, not only where we are”. The app provides yet another interface for the client to reach us in addition to our countrywide branches, website, brokers, agents and sales representatives. Takaful is keen to provide solutions rather than products. Whilst offering a wide range of products for both corporate and personal coverage including medical, motor vehicle, workmen’s compensation, fire & burglary, professional indemnity, domestic, cybersecurity among others, Takaful focuses on what pain can they alleviate for the participants through their covers. For example, the Dada Takaful ladies motor vehicle cover, in addition to taking care of the car, also replaces the Dada’s handbag; the index-based livestock product for pastoralists in arid areas pays them during severe drought, to enable them buy alternative feed for their animals hence mitigating against the risk of loss of assets and income. Sumayya is also keen to ensure the wider community benefits from Takaful’s existence. This isn’t just about occasional CSR but under the Jamii Takaful she has reworked the business model to provide that a percentage of every cover purchased goes to the vulnerable in the society. As part of the 10 year celebrations Takaful also recently launched Mnara an online knowledge sharing platform. Mnara means a tower or lighthouse in Kiswahili. A lighthouse serves the purpose of illuminating the path for ships at sea, similarly Mnara has been designed to help provide mentorship, advice and guidance towards success. Takaful has reached out to mentors from diverse fields to ensure Mnara will provide a rich offering to the mentees.

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