Jubilee tests cover for low-income bracket

Jubilee Insurance Kenya CEO Patrick Tumbo. FILE PHOTO | NMG

What you need to know:

  • The mobile-based micro-health insurance plan will be launched by September, two years after rival Britam pulled the plug on a similar product.

Jubilee Holdings, Kenya’s largest insurer, is set to launch a mobile-based micro-health insurance plan targeting low-income earners.

The cover will be launched by September, two years after rival Britam pulled the plug on a similar product.

The Nairobi bourse-listed firm has partnered with micro-health insurance startup Jamii Africa and has been piloting the product in Tanzania-- which allows users to sign up and pay for a health cover via mobile phones.

Jubilee said on Monday users would sign up via a short code and pay monthly premiums via M-Pesa, making the medical cover accessible to those who cannot afford to pay annual premiums.

“This is not a fixed product. It will have a variable premium in a table form, in a graduated scale. So one can choose a number of beneficiaries,the length of cover, and the benefits one is entitled to,” said Patrick Tumbo, Jubilee Insurance Kenya CEO.

“We’re testing it in Tanzania. Once we prove it and go through the teething problems, we will bring it here in a month or so,” he said after the company’s annual general meeting held Monday.

Jamii Africa launched the M-Pesa-linked health cover in Tanzania in January 2015.