By Mukuma Musenga, CEO Kuala Tech
During the past few days, I had the opportunity to join industry leaders at the Kenya Re 2nd Annual International CEOs Summit here in Lusaka. The discussions, which cut across insurance, banking, telecoms, regulation, and digital transformation, focused on one common thread: how do we build an ecosystem that works for the customer, especially the unbanked?
The panel was asked to unpack the rise of embedded finance, everything from insurance embedded into e-commerce platforms to banking services delivered through telco channels. It quickly became apparent, however, that embedded finance is not just a technology topic; it is a leadership topic.
Here are a few reflections that stood out.
Leadership Means Asking the Hard Question: “What Is Our Role in Reaching the Unbanked?”
The most striking observation made by my fellow panelists was that Sub-Saharan Africa still carries a large population of people who are unbanked and underinsured.
But as leaders, we cannot merely admire the problem.
We must ask ourselves:
- What role do we play in making financial services accessible?
- How do we make sure that solutions we design don’t widen the gap, but close it?
- Are we building for convenience or building for inclusion?
Embedded finance is meaningful when it removes friction for people who have been historically far from traditional financial channels.
Simplicity Is Not Optional, It Is the Strategy
Another panelist summed it up best:
“If the product is complicated, the customer base won’t shift.”
Whether it’s a K20 family funeral cover or a single-tap accident policy at check out, simplicity is the biggest driver of adoption in Africa.
This became even clearer during the telecom-focused discussions:
- People know what they can turn on fast.
- They believe in what they can use without paperwork.
- They adopt what fits naturally into their day-to-day behaviour.
In this vein, leadership is the art of eliminating unnecessary complexity.
Partnerships Will Shape the Winners, But Power Is Uneven
A major theme was the need for deeper collaboration across insurance, banking, and telecoms.
The partnership between PICZ and Airtel was held up as a great example of how insurers can achieve scale quickly by riding on telecom infrastructure. But one pertinent question came up:
“Who has the power in these partnerships?”
The reality is unavoidable:
The entity that controls the data
- The entity with the distribution,
- The entity with the customer relationship,
…holds the strategic advantage.
Today, in Africa, this is often the telecoms.
As leaders, we enter partnerships with clarity: the balance of power follows the flow of customers and information.
But perhaps the encouraging insight from the panel was this: despite the complexity, we are seeing real progress. Telcos, banks and insurers are collaborating more than ever before – and the customer is the beneficiary.
Regulation is becoming an enabler, not a barrier.
Another highlight was the panel discussion with the Pensions and Insurance Authority, the PIA.
The sandbox discussions revealed a regulator keen to open up space for innovation rather than slowing it down.
This is a leadership signal:
When regulators, insurers, and technology players align, transformation accelerates.
This sandbox will give Zambia room to test, refine, and scale solutions that previously struggled to fit into legacy frameworks.
Digital Transformation Needs Infrastructure, Not Just Ideas
The panel on digital transformation underlined a very important fact, which is often overlooked:
You cannot digitize what has no infrastructure beneath it.
Hearing from those laying down physical connectivity, core digital foundations, and middleware reminded the room that transformation is not just about apps, it’s about stable networks, secure systems, and interoperable platforms.
Embedded finance is made possible because the foundational layers exist.
Final Reflection: Leadership Is the Connector
As the summit closed, one thing became very clear to me: talking about innovation is no longer enough.
We’ve spent years describing the gaps, the unbanked, the uninsured, the digitally excluded. We’ve hosted conferences, designed slides, and debated frameworks. But the real test of leadership isn’t in the conversations we host; it’s in the products we build, the partnerships we form, and the risks we are willing to take.
If we are going to shift penetration numbers in Sub-Saharan Africa, then as leaders – whether we sit in a telco, a bank, an insurer, or a technology firm – we must be ready to make the sacrifices that meaningful progress demands.
We must commit to solutions that are more inclusive, even when they are not the easiest to build.
We must be willing to align around the customer, even when it means rethinking legacy systems or traditional power structures.
The question that all of us should be asking is simple:
What are we doing personally to reach out to the unbanked and uninsured?
That may not be so in theory, but in practice.
What are we doing, as businesses, as institutions, as regulators, as innovators to change someone’s financial reality? What are we doing to make protection accessible, affordable, and part of everyday life?
Summits give us a platform to share ideas.
But leadership is what takes those ideas into execution.
It’s time for our industry to shift from dialogue to delivery, to build, to test, to partner, to sacrifice where needed, and to drive collectively toward solutions that include everyone, not just the digitally comfortable.
If we leave every summit with more conversations but no concrete movement, then we are failing the very people we claim to serve.
- The opportunity is now.
- The infrastructure is improving.
- The partnerships are forming.
What is needed now is intention and action.