Accra, Ghana//-aYo Intermediaries Ghana Limited, a leading micro-insurance company today introduced another innovative micro-insurance product onto the Ghanaian market.
The new product-aYo Family Cover which is underwritten by Sanlam Life Insurance Ghana allows Ghanaians to get hospital and life cover for themselves as well as their direct and extended families digitally.
The launch of the new product follows the introduction of other hospitalization and life products such as Send with Care, Recharge with Care, and Recharge with Care Annual Cover.
Speaking at the launch of the product at Madina Market in Accra, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of aYo Ghana, Francis Gota said the company capitalized on the growing market demand for insurance for the whole family to create the new Family Cover product.
He explained that the newly launched product which is the first of its kind in the competitive Ghanaian insurance industry allows policyholders to add up to six people including themselves to enjoy the benefits of the product.
Mr Gota added that the product would also allow customers or policyholders to insure six family members between the ages of one and 69 on both life and hospitalisation cover at a premium of GH¢15 each per policy, for a maximum of GH¢300 hospitalisation benefit per night for each family member.
Aslo, policyholders and family members each get a maximum of GH¢15,000 life cover. Insured lives on the policy remain covered up until the age of 80, the CEO stated.
“As with aYo’s existing products, Family Cover customers must maintain active Mobile Money (MoMo) accounts to pay premiums and claim.
Customers get the flexibility to pay their premiums monthly, quarterly, or annually via MoMo and receive a 10% cash back on no-claims”.
Customers can enjoy this new product by dialing the USSD code *296* and select the Family Cover option to sign on. As with Send with Care, and Recharge with Care, valid Family Cover claims are paid directly to the claimant’s MoMo wallet without any hassle.
Mr Gota noted: “In Ghana, we value togetherness, support, and security, and as a result, we continue to develop insurance solutions that meet the needs of Ghanaians, necessitating the emergence of Family Cover, which not only benefits family members but also reduces financial burdens on dependents”.
He continued: “Our vision at aYo is to create a future in which every Ghanaian not only buys but also uses insurance, with the goal of increasing financial inclusion”.
aYo’s mic-insurance offerings, according to Mr Gota, are dispelling the myth that insurance is just for the wealthy, educated and formal sector employees.
“Today, every Ghanaian can buy insurance on the go, using their mobile phones. Offerings like Family Cover provide a much-needed social safety net that helps vulnerable people and particularly people with low incomes to stay afloat when the unexpected happens”, he said.
Sanlam
On his part, the Chief Executive of Sanlam Ghana, Ben Ahmed Tawiah said Sanlam is proud to be a partner of aYo because the company has proven to be very customer-centric by introducing very affordable insurance products and paying claims very promptly to its numerous customers without any hassle.
He commended aYo Ghana for its unflinching commitment to driving financial inclusion by constantly providing innovative products that enable very low-income Ghanaians to buy and use insurance.
MTN Ghana rep
Like aYo, MTN Ghana rep at the launch, Yaw Sefa said MTN Ghana is committed to providing simple solutions to address the needs of its customers.
Customer’s testimony
Togbe Akpanya III, Chief of Teviefe Adome in the Volta Region, gave a very emotional testimony of how aYo paid a claim of GH¢20,000 to him instantly when he lost three family members at a go, of whom two of them were insured under aYo’s Recharge with Care Annual Cover.
He said his elderly sister put their younger sister (now deceased) on the policy as a beneficiary and named him as next of kin.
But sometime in March this year, the younger sister passed on. While they were doing the paperwork to claim the insurance package for her, the main policyholder (the elderly sister) also passed on.
The Chief said he even forgot about the whole insurance thing because of the death of his two sisters which was too much for him to shoulder. So, they buried the two of them plus another family member the same day.
Togbe Akpanya III further narrated that he got a call in May this year from aYo staff, and the staff said it had been a while since they heard from the policyholder, his big sister.
So, they had to call him because he was named as next of kin. He then told the aYo staff about the passing of the policyholder.
According to him, within a few days, he was invited to the aYo head office at the Accra Digital Centre, after he had provided some information to them via phone.
He said: “As I was sitting in their office, I got a notification on my phone and when I checked they had sent me GH¢20,000. I was so shocked and that was when I realized that this aYo insurance thing is real.”
Suscriber base
aYo Intermediaries Ghana recently announced that it has reached 8 million subscriber base milestone in five years.
The figure (8 million subscribers) represents about 25% of the over 30 million Ghanaian population.
The company also paid claims in value of GH¢14 million to 40,000 policyholders or customers, showing its commitment to the economic wellbeing of its customers in the country.
The company which is a subsidiary of the MTN Group was established to distribute insurance solutions to MTN subscribers in Ghana, Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, Uganda and Zambia and across Africa, attributed the significant growth of the subscribers to timely payment of claims to policyholders and leveraging on technology to give policyholders an awesome customer experience.
The company’s growth is attributable to its sustained micro-insurance campaigns supported by MTN Ghana to improve household resilience to eventualities.
