Myka launches with backing from top investors as the entrepreneur targets Nigeria’s low insurance adoption through technology and community-driven distribution
For years, Nigeria's insurance industry has faced a paradox. Despite managing trillions of naira in assets and serving some of the country's largest businesses, insurance remains largely absent from the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
Industry figures underscore the challenge. According to the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), more than 70% of Nigerians remain uninsured in 2025, leaving millions without any formal protection against health emergencies, accidents, property damage, or other unforeseen risks.
For entrepreneur Sim Shagaya, however, the explanation often given for this low adoption never seemed convincing.
Many industry observers argue that Nigerians simply do not trust or believe in insurance. But Shagaya, founder of Konga, uLesson, and Miva Open University, believes the problem runs much deeper.
"It’s not that Nigerians don’t understand protection," he told TechCabal during an interview on May 11. "The desire for protection is there. What has been lacking is the distribution of structured protection products to people who haven’t had it."
That conviction has led him into a new sector. Drawing from more than a decade of experience solving access and distribution challenges in e-commerce and education, Shagaya has launched Myka, a licensed digital insurance brokerage platform designed to make insurance more accessible to individuals and businesses.
The startup enters the market with backing from notable investors, including Ventures Platform, TLcom, Paystack co-founder Shola Akinlade, LemFi founder Ridwan Olalere, and Voltron Capital founder Olumide Soyombo. While the size of the pre-seed investment remains undisclosed, the support signals growing confidence in a fresh approach to insurance distribution.
Myka launches with a range of products covering motor, gadget, property, health, life, and travel insurance.
A Multi-Billion Naira Industry Still Struggling to Reach Consumers
Nigeria's insurance sector is far from insignificant. Data from the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) shows that the industry recorded more than ₦4 trillion ($2.9 billion) in total assets by the fourth quarter of 2025.
Yet much of that growth has been driven by large corporations purchasing insurance for employees and business operations. Retail participation remains limited, creating a gap between the industry's financial strength and its societal reach.
Several factors have contributed to this disconnect. Low public awareness, perceptions about affordability, inadequate distribution channels, and persistent trust issues have all slowed adoption.
According to Shagaya, trust remains one of the industry's biggest obstacles.
"One thing that has caused issues in the industry has been a lack of trust, which has happened because the claims payment process has not been great," he said. "Nigerians have felt like they buy insurance, but when it’s time to claim, it’s cumbersome, it’s hectic, it’s difficult, and oftentimes they feel like they are treated unfairly."
The problem has been compounded by cases of fake insurance certificates and fragmented records that make policy verification difficult. For many consumers, uncertainty about whether their policies are valid has further eroded confidence.
Recent reforms may help change that narrative. The Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025 has placed retail insurance, digital transformation, consumer protection, and claims efficiency at the center of the industry's future growth strategy.
For Shagaya, these reforms have created a more favorable environment for companies like Myka to expand insurance access.
Building a Digital Marketplace for Insurance
At its core, Myka functions as a digital insurance marketplace.
Through its mobile platform, users can compare and purchase insurance policies from multiple providers while receiving policy documents directly through WhatsApp.
The company aggregates products from up to 17 insurance underwriters, including AIICO, emPLE, Cornerstone, Coronation, Leadway, Rex, and Tangerine. Rather than underwriting policies itself, Myka acts as a broker, connecting consumers with insurers while managing onboarding, distribution, and customer experience.
The platform relies heavily on API integrations that connect directly with insurance companies.
Shagaya says one of Myka's priorities is reducing the documentation and verification errors that frequently complicate claims processes. In motor insurance, for example, the platform can validate vehicle details and match customer identities against regulatory databases before policies are issued.
Rethinking Claims Through Service Networks
Insurance adoption often depends on one critical moment: when customers need to make a claim.
Recognising this, Myka is developing repair and service networks aimed at making claims more seamless.
Under the model, a customer whose phone screen is damaged can report the incident through the platform, receive instructions to visit an approved repair center, and have the device repaired without paying out-of-pocket expenses upfront.
The company plans to extend a similar process to vehicle insurance claims, reducing delays and eliminating much of the friction traditionally associated with repairs.
To support these efforts, Myka combines National Identification Number (NIN) verification, biometric authentication, and artificial intelligence tools that compare policy information against claims data to improve fraud detection and processing efficiency.
Looking Beyond Apps: Insurance Through Everyday Transactions
While many insurtech startups have focused on digital-first experiences, Shagaya believes mobile applications alone will not solve Nigeria's insurance penetration problem.
Instead, he argues that insurance products need to appear where people are already making important purchasing decisions.
"People have talked a lot about embedding insurance in checkout flows and in digital flows, but I think that that is a mistake. I think that doesn’t speak to our reality," he said.
"The truth is that the flows in Nigeria are very manual for a lot of businesses. Nobody has provided a channel for a car dealer to sell comprehensive or third-party insurance as the car is being sold. That is a role that Myka seeks to fill."
This philosophy has shaped Myka's broader distribution strategy.
Bringing the Agency Banking Model to Insurance
One of Myka's most ambitious initiatives is a community-based referral network inspired by the success of agency banking in Nigeria.
In May, the company's Structured Customer Referral Program was admitted into NAICOM's regulatory sandbox, allowing it to test innovative insurance distribution models under regulatory supervision.
The initiative would enable trusted individuals and businesses to recommend or sell insurance products within their existing communities and customer networks.
For example, pharmacists could introduce health insurance products to customers, travel agents could offer travel insurance during international trip bookings, while community associations and local organisations could provide insurance options to members through Myka's platform.
The goal is simple: bring insurance closer to where trust already exists.
"This work would not be possible without the kind of regulatory engagement that NAICOM has shown," Shagaya said.
"That openness to exploring new models—while maintaining the consumer protection standards that should always come first—is what a thoughtful regulator looks like. We are grateful for it and committed to honouring the trust it represents."
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| The Myka and emPLE team. Image source: Myka |
Myka's emphasis on distribution has also attracted investor attention.
Kola Aina, founding partner at Ventures Platform, believes innovation in distribution may be the missing ingredient needed to unlock insurance growth across Nigeria.
"We’ve seen these sorts of agent models work really well and be successful for some of our portfolio companies, including Moniepoint," Aina said.
"We think that there’s got to be some innovation around how you distribute insurance. This is why we’re eager to observe all the experimentation that Sim and the team will carry out over the next several months, as they roll out the products."
Beyond commercial opportunities, Aina sees broader economic implications.
"We’ve always believed that there’s a significant opportunity to create consumption of insurance," he added. "Insurance can play a really critical role in improving prosperity, improving the size of the economy, and just improving livelihoods. We think that solving insurance at scale in Nigeria can add to our mission of expanding and democratising prosperity."
A Familiar Bet on Access and Distribution
Like most insurance brokers, Myka earns revenue through commissions on policies sold via its platform and distribution network.
The startup enters an increasingly active insurtech ecosystem that includes companies such as Curacel, Casava, and PaddyCover, all working to modernise different aspects of Nigeria's insurance value chain.
For Shagaya, however, the venture represents something familiar: another bet on solving distribution challenges at scale.
After building businesses that expanded access to online shopping and digital education, he believes insurance may present one of the country's largest untapped opportunities.
"I’ve gained a lot of experience in Nigerian distribution, and I’ve not seen that distribution problem as acute anywhere as it is in insurance," he said. "The scale of how underserved this market is staggering."
Whether Myka succeeds will depend largely on whether that diagnosis is correct. If Shagaya's assessment proves accurate, the company could help bring insurance to millions of Nigerians who have traditionally been excluded from the market—not by changing what insurance is, but by changing how it reaches people.