Transformative Insurance & AI Leader – Reshaping the Future of Finance & Insurance
Mohammad Danish Eqbal
CEO
Liberty Life (& Health) Assurance Uganda
Transformative Insurance & AI Leader – Reshaping the Future of Finance & Insurance
Mohammad Danish Eqbal
CEO
Liberty Life (& Health) Assurance Uganda
The insurance sector is undergoing a digital & AI revolution, demanding leaders who blend strategy with innovation and empathy to drive inclusive growth. One such leader is Mohammad Danish Eqbal — a visionary CEO and Data & AI strategist with 16+ years of cross-continental experience. In his role as CEO of Liberty Life Assurance Uganda, he delivered a 600% surge in retail revenue, a 12X expansion in distribution, and launched five disruptive products. These efforts earned multiple Innovation Awards and produced best-in-class customer & employee NPS scores. During that same period, as Chair of the Data, AI & Analytics Committee at Standard Bank’s IAM – Africa Regions, Danish helped shape the continent’s dataled, digital-first financial future. He shares more during an exclusive interaction with TradeFlock.
Could you walk us through your professional journey and some of the milestones that shaped your leadership path?
I have spent over 16 years in financial services, largely insurance, across India and Africa. My career traversed through reputed organizations like Daiichi, Aviva, and Tata AIG/AIA, where I worked across strategy,transformation, finance, and distribution. At Tata AIA, I also led Data, AI, and Innovation, building a CoE that delivered over USD 115 Mn annually. It feels humble and fulfilling that the organisation won JRD QV Award for business excellence and DATOM Award for data & AI excellence. Three years ago, I took on my first international assignment as CEO in Uganda, possibly as one of the industry’s youngest at 36. Concurrently, I chaired the Data, AI & Analytics Committee – IAM Africa Regions for the continent’s largest bank. These milestones reflect my philosophy that careers aren’t built on titles alone but through continuous learning, adaptability, and the courage to transform businesses for lasting, people-centric impact.
The future of insurance isn't about efficiency alone — it is about becoming invisible, integrated, and indispensable in people’s lives. That is the real transformation AI will deliver.
Moving from India’s mature insurance market to Uganda’s emerging landscape must have been challenging. What was the biggest mindset shift?
The most important shift was moving from a market of optimization to one of creation. In India, the challenge was often about refining established processes. In Uganda, the real challenge was to build trust in insurance from the ground up, with penetration at just 0.87%.This also required a cultural shift in leadership. As an outsider, I needed to integrate, build trust, and create a high-performance culture. Within a year, our eNPS became one of the highest across Africa regions. The mindset change was about moving from being a player in the game to a force that grows the entire playing field, focusing on growth and inclusion.
You transformed a stagnant business into a growth engine. What was the boldest move, and what did it teach you?
When I joined, the company was a market leader in group insurance but had a marginal retail presence. My boldest move was launching a hyper-growth, inclusive retail strategy. This meant rethinking everything from the ground up. We launched five disruptive, customer-centric products in record time. Our award-winning product was a market first, allowing one policy to cover up to 22 family members on a fully cloud-based digital stack. We also launched a unique savings-andprotection product that removed punitive surrender charges, empowering customers with flexibility. We built entirely new ecosystem partnerships, launching an award-winning app with a major Church community (14M members) and a USSD product with a leading telecom (15.6M subscribers). This product innovation, coupled with a 12X agent force expansion, led to a 600% growth in retail revenue. The lesson was clear: bold decisions aren’t about blind risk. They’re about listening deeply to what customers need and having the courage to dismantle old systems to deliver it.
As a CEO, how did you ensure that strategy, leadership, and execution stayed aligned?
Alignment came from shared ownership. I made our strategy a collective exercise, not a top-down mandate. Senior leaders and, crucially, middle managers were deeply involved in shaping the roadmap and owning strategic pillars. This created an unbreakable link between the vision and the people responsible for executing it. To reinforce this, we implemented structured reviews, transparent performance tracking, and recognition programs to celebrate execution excellence. I often emphasize that “God lies in the design, execution, and excellence.” A brilliant vision is powerless until people are aligned, engaged, and empowered to deliver together with discipline and a profound sense of ownership.
Looking ahead, what do you see as the next frontier for AI in insurance?
AI in insurance is entering a new phase, moving beyond predicting risks to actively preventing them and personalizing solutions. Soon, intelligent assistants won’t just answer queries but will manage policies proactively, recommend coverage changes after life milestones, and process claims in real-time. AI will also enable the design of dynamic, modular products that evolve with customers’ changing risk profiles. By integrating data from health devices and IoT, insurers will shift from simply paying claims to genuinely safeguarding well-being and financial security.
