The government and the Insurance Regulatory Authority have been urged to come up with incentives to encourage investments in sharia-based insurance to enhance protection of low income earners among the muslims.

Takaful Insurance Africa Kenya CEO Hassan Bashir said lack of distribution networks due to stringent licensing requirements for insurance agencies by IRA and high cost of running micro-Takaful operations have locked out a large population of the community from insurance services.

"Poverty levels are too high among the target communities and micro-Takaful offers great opportunity to make a difference in the society given that the low level of insurance penetration in Kenya is at 3 per cent," said Bashir.

Micro-Takaful is a mechanism to provide Shariah-based protection to low income earners and under-privileged individuals at an affordable cost.