emPLE Group Recognized At IMT For Next-Gen Data Infrastructure Innovation
emPLE Insurance Group has been named the recipient of the inaugural “Most Promising Innovation Yet” recognition by Insurance Meets Tech (IMT), earning accolades for its ambitious data infrastructure, which is designed to accelerate digital transformation across Nigeria’s insurance industry.
The recognition was awarded to emPLE’s Data Lake project, a cloud-based platform built on Microsoft’s Azure Bronze-Silver-Gold architecture to address one of the industry’s biggest operational challenges—fragmented customer data spread across policy administration, claims, customer relationship management and finance systems.
According to IMT, the platform is designed to collect customer data once, govern it centrally, and make it accessible across multiple business functions, creating a single source of truth that powers Power BI dashboards, application programming interfaces (APIs), and artificial intelligence and machine-learning models.
The initiative is expected to provide a comprehensive Customer 360-degree view, integrating every customer interaction, from quotations and policies to claims history.
IMT said the platform would lay the foundations for AI-powered underwriting, real-time fraud detection, customer churn prediction, embedded insurance at the point of sale, and intelligent customer service.
Although the infrastructure is still under development, IMT said its transformative potential distinguished it from all other entries assessed this year, earning it special recognition rather than inclusion in the ranked IMT 10 To Watch list.
Formerly known as Old Mutual Nigeria, emPLE Group operates through emPLE Life Assurance Limited and emPLE General Insurance Limited, offering life assurance, general insurance and credit insurance solutions across Africa.
Commenting on the inaugural IMT 10 To Watch initiative, Odion Aleobua, Convener of Insurance Meets Tech and Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Creato Urban, said the ranking reflects the gradual digital transformation underway in Nigeria’s insurance sector.
“This list shows that the transformation of the Nigerian insurance industry is gradually aligning with the growing demand for the complete digitalisation of insurance services, as required by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM). The companies featured in this inaugural 10 To Watch ranking are taking the initiative rather than waiting for the industry to evolve,” he said.
Aleobua added that the assessment framework is intended to recognise innovation and encourage insurers to accelerate their digital transformation, warning that the gap between industry leaders and laggards will continue to widen.
The IMT 10 To Watch framework evaluates participating insurers against two equally weighted criteria—digital transformation depth, which measures technology architecture, AI adoption, automation and internal digitalisation, and market impact, which assesses the reach, accessibility and relevance of digital initiatives for policyholders. Each criterion is scored on a 100-point scale.
Insurance Meets Tech, organised annually by Creato Urban, serves as Nigeria’s leading platform for collaboration between the insurance and technology sectors. The fifth edition of the conference is scheduled for September 18, 2026, at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
