BRITISH America Insurance Company has launched a travel insurance product to take advantage of the growing Kenya's growing outbound travellers. The insurance firm has partnered with London based Speciality Assist company to implement the product which will cover passport and documents loss, emergency medical cases, sudden illness and flight cancellations or delays among other benefits.

"This is the first time we are launching a travel insurance product because we had to look for a partner company with worldwide network. There is no need for an insurer to offer a product without good partnership that will dissapoint people that is why we had no travel insurance until today," explained British American underwriting manager George Odinga.

British American now joins other insurers like UAP and Heritage that offer travel insurance covers. Travel insurance is compulsory for trips to Schengen countries as well as some Asian countries like China. With trade between Kenya and China growing, business travel has risen over time also giving a boost to the travel insurance products.

To push the cover in the market, British America has introduced an agent payment system to cover both the selling travel agency as well as the individual sales agent who closes the deal. The insurance firm says it will pay an overall 20 per cent commission of gross premium by a travel agency to be broken down into 12 per cent for the agency and 8 per cent for the individual who sells the cover.