For decades, insurance in Africa has struggled with complex policies, opaque systems, and a lack of trust among young consumers. But Ayodeji Adebiyi, founder of Insure Africa, believes the solution lies not in more products, but in more people.
Insure Africa is challenging how young Africans learn, access, and interact with the insurance industry. What began in 2013 as a simple blog, Insurance Blitz, born from Adebiyi’s frustration with the lack of online information, has evolved into a continent-spanning innovation hub combining education, mentorship, and employability.
In this exclusive, Techparley speaks with Ayodeji Adebiyi, about how Insure Africa is redefining insurance literacy and inclusion across Nigeria by turning community, technology, and education into powerful tools for trust and engagement in a long-misunderstood industry.
“Insure Africa started as a simple frustration: Insufficient insurance information on the internet,” Adebiyi told Techparley. “We saw there was a whole generation of smart students who’d never seen insurance work in real terms. The CaaS idea bridges that gap.”
What You Should Know
For Adebiyi, Insure Africa’s mission goes beyond publishing educational content. It’s about transforming how insurance is experienced. Through its community-driven initiatives, the platform turns theory into practice.
“Learning becomes co-creation: students get to test products in user panels, present live to sponsors, earn badges and placements for doing useful work,” he explained. “They learn how to lodge a claim, how pricing works, what underwriters look for, so that insurance can become familiar, not scary.”
This hands-on model, he said, redefines learning as co-creation, where young Africans no longer just study insurance, but help shape its future.
Literacy Before Products
According to Adebiyi, his philosophy rests on one simple truth: insurance inclusion begins with literacy. He believes the biggest challenge isn’t affordability, but trust and comprehension.
Adebiyi noted that people don’t buy insurance because they don’t understand it. He says they buy the wrong thing and get disappointed, and education solves that.
Insure Africa tackles this through accessible learning formats: short explainer videos, meme-driven microlearning, and webinars that simplify technical jargon. The founder says the goal is to make insurance information as shareable as a TikTok clip, without losing its depth.
“When people understand value, conversion improves, claim frustration drops, and retention grows. That’s what truly transforms a market,” he added.
Bridging the Gap
Nigeria’s insurance education system, Adebiyi argued, remains largely theoretical. Students graduate without the practical, data, or business skills employers demand, while policymakers rarely hear from youth voices shaping the future workforce.
To close these, Insure Africa built an ecosystem of internship pipelines, product sprints, and research labs. Students complete employer-designed micro-tasks, test MVPs for real insurers, and contribute to youth-focused data briefs shared with policymakers.
The startup also hosts regulatory roundtables, ensuring young professionals have a seat at the table when new insurance frameworks are being discussed.
“We run a regulator roundtable and share impact reports, so policymakers get evidence, not anecdotes. The result: better skilled grads, faster employer hiring and policy that reflects what young people actually need,” he said.
Understanding Insure Africa’s Technology
While Insure Africa’s mission is deeply human, technology remains its amplifier. The platform’s community-first tech stack integrates chat hubs for peer collaboration, livestreamed events for scale, and embedded tools for research and employer dashboards, all designed for transparency.
“We combine simple, proven tech with strong process and transparency. Our tech stack is community-first: chat hubs for peer support, livestreamed events and recorded webinars for scale, embedded surveys and user panel tools for research and employer dashboards for transparent hiring,” Adebiyi said.
According to Adebiyi, every signup is opt-in, with visible privacy notices and impact dashboards showcasing measurable progress. For sponsors and partners, anonymised research insights replace corporate spin with genuine data transparency.
What This Means
Africa’s insurance industry is expanding steadily. Across the continent, the insurance market is projected to reach $91 billion by the end of 2025. Analysts project that Insure Africa may help create a future where insurance in Africa will be a practical financial tool for empowerment.
Looking five years ahead, Adebiyi sees Insure Africa as a pan-African talent engine, producing the next generation of insurance innovators and regulators.
By then, he envisions tens of thousands of trained members, a verified hiring pipeline for insurers, and a portfolio of youth-designed product pilots gaining regulatory approval through bodies like NAICOM.
According to experts, Insure Africa isn’t just teaching young Africans about insurance, it’s reimagining how the entire industry engages with the next generation.
Talking Points
It is impressive that Insure Africa has reimagined insurance education through a Community-as-a-Service (CaaS) model, transforming what was once a dry, theory-heavy field into an engaging, participatory experience for students and young professionals.
At Techparley, we see how community-driven learning and gamified participation can unlock fresh energy in traditional sectors like insurance. By merging mentorship, digital tools, and open collaboration, Insure Africa is helping young Africans understand the real value of protection, not just the paperwork behind it.
The platform’s emphasis on literacy before product sales is equally noteworthy. By simplifying complex concepts through explainer videos, memes, and webinars, Insure Africa is tackling misinformation head-on, creating a generation of informed users who understand what they’re buying and why.
As Insure Africa grows, the opportunity lies in expanding its policy advocacy and research collaborations. By bringing youth voices to the regulatory table, the platform could influence how micro-insurance, digital claims, and inclusion frameworks evolve across the continent.
With sustained support and strategic partnerships, Insure Africa has the potential to become not just an education platform, but the engine powering Africa’s next generation of insurance innovators.
—————————-
Bookmark Techparley.com for the most insightful technology news from the African continent.
Follow us on Twitter @Techparleynews, on Facebook at Techparley Africa, on LinkedIn at Techparley Africa, or on Instagram at Techparleynews.
