Mastercard has partnered with Kenyan insurtech mTek (Hillcroft) to embed insurance directly into everyday card payments for consumers and small and medium enterprises across East Africa. Coverage options will appear within familiar payment journeys, reducing friction in sign-up and claims while expanding access through trusted banking and merchant channels. The collaboration aims to address low regional insurance penetration, typically below 3 percent, by solving for high upfront costs, complex onboarding, and limited distribution.

What Is Happening

Through Mastercard’s network and mTek’s digital policy infrastructure, financial institutions, insurers, and telcos will distribute simple, contextual insurance products at scale. Coverage will be offered at the point of transaction, meeting customers in the channels they already use. Early priorities include instant, fit-for-purpose policies tailored to small businesses and farmers.

Why It Matters

Inclusion. Low-cost, bite-sized covers delivered in familiar channels can broaden access to protection for underserved segments.

Simplicity. One-tap enrollment, automated reconciliation, and integrated claims journeys reduce abandonment and improve user experience.

Scale. Bank, merchant, and platform ecosystems accelerate distribution beyond traditional agency models.

Value for Ecosystem Participants

Banks and Issuers. The partnership opens data-informed revenue lines inside existing card portfolios and strengthens retention with value-added services.

Merchants and Platforms. Contextual protection bundled with payments, such as travel, device, crop, or invoice insurance, can increase trust, average order value, and post-purchase satisfaction.

Operating Model

The model aligns financial institutions, insurers, and telcos to co-create and support embedded products. Mastercard’s rails enable distribution at checkout, while mTek’s digital policy administration supports instant issuance, premium collection, and claims servicing.

Bottom Line

Embedding insurance inside routine payments can shift East Africa’s protection gap from an industry challenge to an everyday feature of commerce, built into the swipe, tap, or click.