Yu entices clients with life insurance

INSURANCE penetration is set to increase after mobile network Yu pledged to buy life insurance covers for all its active subscribers. Yu mobile subscribers will be given life and disability insurance cover from Jubilee Insurance Company whose maximum value will be determined by the cumulative value of airtime top up made in a month.

The cover has been developed by global low end insurance product organization MicroEnsure. Current insurance penentration rate in the country stands at 3.02 per cent and MicroEnsure projects that the cover is likely to double this within one year. For instance out of the 2.8 million yuMobile subscribers, only 700,000 of these have qualified for the first batch of the cover based on the airtime top-up and usage during August. “People in the mass market do not wake up everyday planning on buying insurance but they often wake up in the morning worried about the risks that they are exposed to,” said MicroEnsure Preseident Richard Leftley.

Patrick Tumbo the CEO of Jubilee Insurance said the partnership will play a big role in delivery of insurance to majority of people in the country by leveraging on the popular use of the mobile phones nationally. Subscribers whose cumulative recharge for one month is minimum of Sh100 will be covered to a maximum of Sh10,000, minimum top up of Sh250 will be covered up to a value of Sh20,000.

For use of at least Sh500 airtime subscribers will get a maximum cover value of Sh40,000 while for those who top up and use more than Sh1,000, they will be eligible for a cover value of up to Sh60,000. Though group life covers have according to industry data been registering disastrous financial results, insurance agent Joakim Obulukhu said the structure of the yuMobile and Jubilee product will be sustainable as it leverages on economies of scale.