Insight
Where is insurance technology in Zambia heading?
In short
Insurance technology in Zambia is moving from separate policy, finance and communication systems, often supplemented by spreadsheets, toward integrated platforms that run policies, claims, collections, accounting and customer channels on one record. The drivers are practical: Mobile Money and USSD as the main customer channels, the reporting demands of the Insurance Act No. 38 of 2021 and IFRS 17, and the cost of manual reconciliation.
The insurers that benefit most are those that treat technology as the operating model of the company rather than as an IT project.
What most insurers run today
A typical long-term insurer has grown a patchwork: a policy administration system, sometimes decades old; a separate accounting package; spreadsheets for actuarial and regulatory returns; a bulk SMS tool; a call centre log; and manual processes connecting them. Each handoff between systems is a place where data is re-keyed and errors enter. Month-end and regulatory reporting become reconciliation exercises rather than reporting.
The forces pushing change
Four pressures are converging.
- Customer channels: policyholders pay and communicate by phone, so Mobile Money, USSD, SMS and WhatsApp must be live channels of the core system, not bolt-ons.
- Regulation: the Pensions and Insurance Authority's returns under the Insurance Act No. 38 of 2021 and IFRS 17 measurement both require granular, consistent policy and cash-flow data.
- Cost: manual reconciliation and re-keying consume staff time that could go to sales and service.
- Competition: insurers that can launch a product on USSD in weeks, and pay funeral claims to a wallet in days, set customer expectations for everyone else.
What modern insurance technology looks like
The defining feature is a single record of each client, policy, payment and claim that every function reads from and writes to. Around that record sit the modules an insurer needs: policy administration, underwriting, claims, commissions, a general ledger, actuarial and IFRS 17 reporting, and the customer channels. Increasingly, the same platform also runs the company's HR, payroll and procurement, which is what turns an insurance system into an insurance ERP.
Cloud, on-premise and data residency
Insurers weigh the convenience of cloud hosting against control over data and the requirements of the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021. Locally hosted deployments, or cloud regions with clear data-handling terms, are common answers. Whichever model is chosen, backups, access control and audit logging are non-negotiable because the system holds sensitive personal and financial data.
Automation and analytics
Once data is consistent, automation becomes possible: rules-based underwriting for simple products, automatic premium reminders and prompts, claims triage that routes straightforward funeral claims for fast approval, and dashboards that show persistency, claims experience and collections by channel in real time. These are incremental gains built on clean data rather than a separate 'AI' initiative.
What to look for when choosing a platform
Ask whether the platform was built for long-term insurance rather than adapted from general insurance; whether Mobile Money and USSD are native; whether it produces PIA returns and IFRS 17 outputs from operational data; whether it can run the rest of the company; and whether the vendor understands the Zambian market. Implementation is also about data migration and staff training, not just software.
Ontech LifeI ERP's place in this
Ontech LifeI ERP, developed by Ontech Solutions in Lusaka, is one answer to these pressures: a life insurance ERP with Zambian channels and reporting built in. See insurance ERP in Zambia for how it is applied locally.
Frequently asked questions
What is insurance technology?
The software and systems an insurer uses to run its business: policy administration, underwriting, claims, billing and collections, accounting, regulatory reporting and customer channels such as apps, USSD and WhatsApp.
Why are Zambian insurers replacing legacy systems?
Legacy systems and spreadsheets struggle with Mobile Money and USSD channels, with the data demands of PIA returns and IFRS 17, and with the cost of manual reconciliation between separate systems.
Is cloud hosting suitable for a Zambian insurer?
It can be, provided data protection obligations under the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 are met and the insurer is satisfied with data residency, backups and access controls. Many insurers choose local hosting.
Sources
See Ontech LifeI ERP for your company
Book a demo with Ontech Solutions in Lusaka and see policy administration, claims, Mobile Money collection and PIA reporting working together in one platform.