The Palestine Capital Market Authority (PCMA) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in partnership with the Palestinian Insurance Federation (PIF) announced the completion of the first PCMA Insurtech Wizard Hackathon and Challenge.
The hackathon and challenge both aimed to provide a platform for innovation and drive market development for inclusive insurance products in Palestine. The goal is to improve access to and understanding of insurance products for MSMEs and low-income customers in the country. These currently face low levels of insurance literacy, mistrust and a lack of inclusive products.
PCMA – the regulator for non-banking financial sectors in Palestine – also partnered with the open innovation firm Fintech Galaxy. Together they powered the PCMA Insurtech Wizard Hackathon and Insurtech Wizard Challenge. It was hosted on the PCMA Ebtaker platform.
The Insurtech Wizard Challenge
The Insurtech Wizard Challenge was open to mature regional or global enterprise-ready insurtech or tech firms with solutions aimed at enhancing access to insurance products and services. The winners of the challenge, Aura Technologies from UAE and KASKO from UK , each received $5,000. Additionally, they got the opportunity to cooperate with one of the insurance players in Palestine on a proof of concept of their solution.
The Insurtech Wizard Hackathon
The Insurtech Wizard Hackathon had two themes: “Creating Access to Inclusive Insurance and Insurance Literacy” and “Improving the Customer Experience”. The winner of the first theme, Pay Day from Tunisia, received $5,000. Additionally, BeNew Insurance from Cameroon won the second theme and received the same prize.
Response
Nabil Kassis, chairman of PCMA, said: “This competition aligns with the PCMA five-year plan (2021-2025) aimed at promoting the adoption of financial technology in the non-banking financial sectors. The competition has a strong regional and international focus, aiming to stimulate and direct the development of inclusive and sustainable fintech and insurtech innovations.
“We truly believe that this initiative serves as a catalyst to bring innovative solutions that can improve financial inclusion and address the challenges faced by the country’s insurance sector. By providing a platform for cutting-edge ideas, we are confident that the competition will help drive the market development for inclusive insurance products in Palestine.”
Johannes Majewski, CLuster coordinator and head of project, GIZ Palestine said” The countries in the region have made considerable economic progress over the last decade. Despite this progress, insurance penetration remains low in the region. There are various reasons, for example, often limited awareness of the benefits of insurance.”
Mohammad Rimawi, Palestine Insurance Federation said: “The Palestinian insurance federation aims to integrate the financial technology in the insurance sector to enhance the insurance sector in Palestine, and empower people to reach the insurance services more efficiently and effectively. He added that the insurance companies have number of qualifications and innovators, however, we encourage to reach regional entrepreneurs to be part of this development.”
The PCMA Insurtech Wizard Challenge received a total of 16 submissions from 10 countries and the Hackathon received 41 participants. The competition is a step towards advancing financial inclusion in Palestine. Furthermore, it will provide a platform for innovative and sustainable solutions to the challenges faced by the country’s insurance sector.
