AX​​A Mansard Insurance Plc, a member of the AXA Group and Airtel Nigeria, Wednesday unveiled a digital health bundle, an innovative product that offers customers access to affordable healthcare.
According to reports, over 95 percent of the Nigerian population lacks any form of health insurance. This situation which the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has tried to tackle over the years sadly has forced many Nigerians to spend more on health.
Nigeria ranks the third highest country with the highest out-of-pocket health spending – 76.6% of health spending in the country is out-of-pocket.
However, the digital health bundle which was launched in Lagos at Airtel Nigeria head office has been described as the first of its kind in the history of the country. The product was strategically carved out to afford Nigerians high-speed Internet data plan, affordable healthcare benefits, and affordable healthcare Insurance.
Airtel customers who have data-enabled phones can dial 14444# to subscribe to the various health bundles. It has three segments to which customers can subscribe: N700 for 1GB of data and 7 days of medical insurance; N1,700 for 2GB of data and 30 days of medical insurance; and 3,500 for 10GB and 30 days of medical insurance.
Tope Adeniyi, Chief Executive Officer AXA Mansard Health Limited commended Airtel Nigeria for the strategic partnership that will ensure that everyone including those at the bottom of the pyramid with data-enabled smartphones can benefit from affordable healthcare.
He said the Nigerian government has signed into law National Health Insurance Authority Bill making it mandatory for every Nigerian to have health insurance and this product we are offering is the best way to start.
According to Tope, through the partnership with Airtel, “we are addressing the issue of having less than 5 percent of those who have health insurance. We are advancing universal healthcare in Nigeria.”
He assured that AXA Mansard will continue to build partnerships with other businesses, designing strategies to build innovative products that will delight the customers.
Since the COVID pandemic, health care has been top of mind for a lot of Nigerians. And it’s also been very clear that access to this healthcare has been a critical issue for Nigerians.
Airtel and AXA Mansard have so far unboarded over 2000 pharmacies and collaborated with specific hospitals that will provide those basic health services to customers.
Speaking at the launch, Alfred Egbai, Deputy Chief Digital Innovation Officer, AXA Mansard said customers can subscribe by purchasing the data via a unique code (×141×44#)
and access the commands displayed and subscribe.
“When you feel ill the next thing is to click the link that takes them straight to a WhatsApp – WhatsApp channel. A customer can engage with a doctor who tries to understand their symptoms and exactly what it would look like if they walked into the hospital today. We have designed the same process and the doctor understands their symptoms, he links the customer with a pharmacy.
Alfred said the insurance company toensuresmerging customers can emerge in an emerging economy in Nigeria so that when these healthcare issues happen, we want to be there to protect them.
“Again, we want to ensure that they don’t slip back into poverty and that they can hit their aspirations and we’re doing this with one simple goal in mind – affordable medical intervention for everyone. We want to ensure no Nigerian lacks the basics when it comes to health care,” he said.
