Hollard’s insuretech yielding positive result
The conservative Ghanaian insurance industry has undergone several disruptions in the past decade driven by an age of immediacy, new trends and fierce competition.
Customers’ needs, knowledge and expectations have expanded exponentially and consequently the industry must extend beyond its core service propositions if it is to retain and acquire new customers.
Given the industry’s slow nascency, dire penetration rates and ever reluctant nature of policyholders, insurers must innovate to succeed in enabling better futures for their customers.
Indeed, there is progress; example being the recently introduced game-changing Motor Insurance Database which has facilitated a consolidated database while mitigating insurance fraud.
As fintech spurred new life into the banking sector, so can insuretech transform insurance in Ghana. Thankfully, one insurance group, Hollard Ghana, is rising to the challenge with its unconventional disruptions so far centered around digital microinsurance, welfare for digital giving, e-commerce, and artificially intelligent chatbots.
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What is Insurtech?
Insurtech, a combination of “insurance” and “technology,” simply refers to using technology to drive cost savings and efficiency in the insurance industry.
It explores ways for insurance firms to offer personalised policies using data obtained from connected devices. It allows them to match product prices to potential customers’ behaviours and preferences.
Hollard Ghana, with subsidiaries Hollard Insurance and Hollard Life Assurance is a vibrant brand with a purpose to enable more people to create and secure a better future.
As an unconventional company, Hollard is consistently delighting its customers with innovative products, unrivalled customer experience and a stress-free claims process by putting customers first.
Digital microinsurance
Hollard Life partnered with a pan-African fintech company, Cassava Fintech, and Vodafone to launch a USSD based micro-insurance product for the underserved market in Ghana to make insurance accessible for all.
MeBanbɔ was developed out of insights received from engaging with potential customers in underserved markets who expressed interest in securing their financial well being against unexpected incidences, such as funerals and disability.
For the product to be accessible, the distribution method had to be easy for the target to use. Hence, the choice of USSD format used widely for mobile money.
The insurance product, called ‘MeBanbɔ’ – loosely translated to ‘My Protection’ is the first micro-insurance product of its kind offering tailored packages of varying amounts that suit different needs
Although still early, the outcomes of the introduction of MeBanbɔ are clear; close to ten thousand signups so far, widespread visibility and reach, renewed interest in insurance, a new vision of insurance as a lifestyle, increased penetration, and a prime example of insuretech.
Digital giving
Hollard Life partnered with Africa’s leading church technology service provider, Asoriba, to provide church members a platform to give electronically to their churches while earning free life insurance.
The partnership allows church members to pay their tithes and offerings while earning life cover and hospital cash-back.
The insurance group’s move into the church and digital giving space using insuretech, although unconventional, made sense given that churches became digital minded when the pandemic struck but needed to maintain their members welfare support.
Jumia partnership
Taking on e-commerce, in a bid to make insurance more accessible, Hollard partnered Africa’s leading e-commerce platform to retail insurance digitally.
Jumia leverages its technology and network to provide its efficient JumiaPay platform for Ghanaians to purchase Hollard’s general and life insurance products online.
Araba Hollard
The award-winning chatbot called Araba Hollard is a clear example of when artificial intelligence meets insurance.
The innovative chatbot fronts Hollard Insurance’s product, Hollard ChatInsure. Currently hosted on WhatsApp, the chatbot is fondly called ‘Araba Hollard’.
Araba is the first virtual insurer in the country, offering end-to-end insurance services within the messaging application and without human intervention.
Araba offers renters and homeowners, Home and Home Contents insurance. Customers can initiate, process, pay and receive policy documents on WhatsApp covering burglary, fire and allied perils to their possessions and physical building structure.