Leadway Assurance has partnered with PlanB Insurance for Nigerian Women to launch women-focused insurance products which have been approved by the National Insurance Commission.
At the launch of the products, the partners maintained that they would help to drive financial inclusion and insurance penetration in Nigeria.
According to Women’s World Banking, only 35 per cent of women and 55 per cent of men have access to financial services in Nigeria, while health insurance coverage remains persistently low at less than five per cent despite a universal health insurance mandate.
Speaking at the event, the Director of Sales, Retail and Partnerships, Leadway Assurance, Kike Fischer, said, “We have several insurances, but there’s very little that has been dedicated to women in particular. We tried to see what are the biggest worries of the average woman in Nigeria. Some of the key things we worry about are our children, our health, and our businesses.
“The products have been bundled in such a way that they cover all areas and aspects of life that a typical woman will worry about. So, we created this pre-priced product, which will focus on all aspects of a woman’s life.”
The Chief Executive Officer/Co-founder of Plan B, Ayona Aguele-Trimnell, in her comments, said, “Insurance is extremely important in helping women. How we got here is that NAICOM finally approved for us to have sort of a test, a litmus test, a sandbox test for one year, and say, ’Will women buy insurance?’ So that’s why we’re here. We’re launching this product. It’s been a lot of work. We’ve had to think about pricing.
“As women ourselves, designing products for women, we designed products that we wanted. And we feel like these products are going to be important to all women, all facets of women in Nigeria.”
Highlighting the products, co-founder, Babi Subair, noted that there are SME, corporate and premier bundles with three bands within each package tagged Bloom, Flourish and Thrive.
Subair said that some of the challenges which women face when it comes to accessing insurance were factored into the product design.
She explained, “There are three concerns of women with insurance. One is that they don’t understand insurance. They find it confusing. So, we’ve simplified it for them by bundling it. Another concern for women is that they feel that insurance is expensive. So, we’ve also made it affordable.
“We’ve fought a lot to get the rates that we want. Because I said it has to be something I can afford to pay every month. Or that my women can afford to pay monthly. So it is affordable. Then it’s the complexity of different policies and different coverage. So we simplified it into one policy.”
