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Nib, Jamii.one launches micro life insurance coverage

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Nib Insurance Company teamed up with Danish based social enterprise, Jamii.one to provide massive micro life insurance coverage.
The two companies have disclosed that the new initiative will make beneficiary those who are isolated for insurance coverage.
On the memorandum of understanding signing ceremony held on Thursday March 10, Nib officials said that the individuals who come up as group through traditional social relief scheme, edirs, will get life insurance coverage, which is the poorest insurance service provided in Ethiopia unlike other countries experience.
As per the new scheme, two types of compensation services is provided for those who save premium on daily bases through edirs linked with Jamii.one platform.
To get a compensation of 100,000 birr edir members will have to save one birr on daily basis, while if members save two birr per day they will be covered by 200,000 birr.
Mekdes Letta, Head of Life Insurance Division of Nib Insurance, said that under the group micro life insurance coverage scheme edirs that at least they should have 35 members and they will be be included on the scheme, “as we know edirs have on average have 100 members but the number we put as minimum members is just to fulfill some sort of criteria.”
“Initially the scheme will be introduced in Addis Ababa but will be expanded throughout the country,” Mekdes told Capital.
“Unlike conventional life insurance coverage on the new micro scheme there is no any preconditions or personal conditions will not be considered,” she added.
She said the initiative gives the opportunity to expand the life insurance segment with very small premium amount.
As per the agreement Jamii.one technological platform will create a linkage between edirs and the insurer.
Charlotte Roenje, CEO and Co-founder of Jamii.one, about her company said that it is a Danish company, but it was born and raised in Ethiopia, “so all the majority of our users are here. We have developed the technology in very close collaboration with more than 1,000 Ethiopians. Myself, my technical co-founder have sat in groups to develop a technology that would reflect how communities have their finances together, like, saving up together, and having insurance.”
“We have developed a genuine app, which is freely available. Anyone can download it and use it as a group. Register all edir members; register your savings, or contributions. And then, our ambition is to use that digital registry of people to allow them to have new products,” she said by adding “Jamii.one is a social enterprise. It is a company for profit, but it has a very strong social focus. We didn’t create this company to become very rich. We would have done something else if we wanted to be rich.”
She explained the edir institution is a very rich cultural institution, while it is also going into a new time and age, and whether young generation is digital and they have more offers.
“So, we believe by creating product specific for the edir groups we can strengthen what it is that they are giving to their members, give them more opportunity, starting with life and but the ambition from Nib Insurance and ourselves is beyond that and developing products that will safeguard the livelihoods of the communities of edirs,” Roenje told Capital.
The company is expanding heavily right now. There are more than 100,000 people in Ethiopia registered in the Janmii.one platform and more than 17,000 new people registering every month.
Tigist Bezu, Country Representative of Janmii.one said over three thousand edirs as a group have registered and use Janmii.one app that provided services in different local languages.
She said that in the past years the company was engaged on capacity building for different self-help associations to modernize their activities through digital scheme.
About Nib, Roenje said that the company specialized in micro insurance, and life insurance and so they are offering now their product of micro life insurance, group insurance to the edirs. “This is very difficult to do traditionally, because who is in the group? How can, you know? But now in the Jamii.one you have a registry that can show members; so it is now possible for Nib Insurance to service the segment.”
Regarding the interest of edirs about the new scheme Roenje said that there is a lot of interest, “it was actually not our idea. It was the idea of edir members. They said to us ‘can you bring us life Insurance’ and we said we will try and we are succeeding. From here we are learning we need guidance from local community and government. We need guidance to build and take this from a piloting and a test into something that can scale.”

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