Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re) has lined up Sh1.5 billion to fund a regional and international expansion plan targeting Tanzania, Rwanda and India as it seeks to restore growth after retreating from loss-making business lines.
The State-owned re-insurer told shareholders during the recent annual general meeting that the investment will support setting up of a subsidiary in Tanzania, a branch office in India’s Gujarat International Finance Tec (Gift) City and a liaison office in Rwanda.
The move comes after Kenya Re reported a drop in total insurance revenue to Sh17.07 billion in 2025 from Sh18.84 billion in 2024, a decline attributed to a strategic decision to exit unprofitable business, particularly in agriculture and parts of its India portfolio.
‘This was a conscious profitability-over-volume decision. While it reduced top-line revenue, it led to significantly improved underwriting results. To reverse the trend and restore growth, the corporation is pursuing regional expansion and focusing on profitable classes of business,’ Kenya Re said in disclosures following the meeting.
The re-insurer is also making a renewed push into key markets across Africa and Asia as part of the efforts to stem the recent back-to-back decline in profits.
Kenya Re’s net profit peaked at Sh4.97 billion in 2023 before dropping for two straight years to Sh3.92 billion at the end of December 2025.
Last year’s decline in net profit from Sh4.44 billion in 2024 came on the back of insurance revenue retreating to Sh17.07 billion from Sh18.84 billion posted in the previous year. Kenya Re linked the decline in revenue to a ‘deliberate strategic withdrawal’ from loss-making business lines.
The bulk of the planned Sh1.5 billion capital outlay will primarily support entry into Tanzania, where regulations require reinsurers to have a physical presence to underwrite local business.
The reinsurer currently has subsidiaries in Uganda, Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire. In the year ended December 2025, it more than doubled its investment in Zambia to Sh498.5 million from Sh214.9 million a year earlier.
The fresh investment in Zambia was to recapitalise the unit in line with the market’s Insurance (General) Regulations, 2022 that requires insurers and reinsurers to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of at least 150 percent. The regulations gave underwriters a three-year grace period of up to December 2025 comply.
Kenya Re’s investments in Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda, valued at Sh1.96 billion and Sh584.2 million respectively at the end of December 2025, remained unchanged from 2024. Total investment in subsidiaries rose to Sh3.05 billion in 2025 from Sh2.76 billion in 2024.
The Cote d`Ivoire unit started operating in 2015, followed by the Zambian branch in 2016 while the Uganda subsidiary started operations in January 2023.
Kenya Re is already advancing the planned entry into Tanzania, having opened the recruitment for a chief executive officer and chief financial officer to be based in Dar es Salaam.
The Tanzania unit is expected to help the reinsurer reclaim the market share it lost after the country introduced rules barring foreign reinsurers without local operations.
In India, Kenya Re is setting up a branch in the Gift City, which is a special economic zone that offers tax incentives and allows firms to transact in foreign currency. The branch will focus on property, engineering and marine lines, which Kenya Re considers more profitable.
The India return marks another strategic shift after Kenya Re exited the market in 2023 following underwriting losses in agricultural reinsurance. The reinsurer now plans a more selective approach, targeting break-even within three years.