The Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) has developed a virtual motor insurance certificate to curb insurance-related fraud in the industry.

The insurance industry umbrella lobby said Monday that the digitisation of the insurance certificates will break an elaborate motor vehicle fraud scheme that has been bleeding the industry of millions of shillings through fake multiple claims. Digitisation is also expected to increase efficiency.

The new system takes effect immediately for motorcycles.

“This shift to virtual certificates will help curb motor insurance fraud by ensuring that only one motor insurance certificate is issued per vehicle,” AKI said in a statement.

“Cases of double insurance, fake certificates and stolen insurance certificates will be eliminated. The virtual certificates will save insurance companies the cost of physically delivering the certificates to their customers.”

Insurance companies will issue the virtual certificate to their customers from their platform known as the AKI Vehicle Insurance Certificate (VIC) Issuance.

Customers will download an app known as AKI Vehicle Insurance Certificate (VIC) Verification from where they will be able to query and verify the status of their insurance, said AKI.

The roll-out of the certificates will be carried out in two phases. The first phase will be all motorcycle certificates.

The second phase will run parallel with the current certificates until a mid-next year after which, the transition to the virtual certificates will be completed.

SOURCE: BUSINESS DAILY