CIC Life Assurance, a subsidiary of CIC Insurance Group, has introduced a new way of buying life insurance from loading airtime credit on mobile phones. With the advancement in mobile technology and the integration of financial and insurance services, CIC Life Assurance MD Ezekiel Owuor said that consumers are now able to purchase life insurance covers when they load airtime onto their mobile phones.
Christened ‘CIC Bima Credo’, the new service is structured to enable consumers pay for their life insurance premiums in affordable amounts and as part of their daily mobile airtime usage. “CIC Bima Credo is the first of such services in Kenya, and as a micro insurer, it falls within our overall corporate strategy to break down insurance into manageable and affordable premiums. With this service, we are able to expand access, while simplifying and making life insurance in line with our brand purpose of helping people achieve financial security,” said Owuor.
He explained that the first step in operationalizing the CIC Bima Credo is to roll out the firm’s popular Last Expense Cover, which ensures that the policy holder is fully provided for in case of demise. “We take cognizant of the fact that funerals can be expensive and may wipe away a family’s savings. The Last Expense cover is designed to give bereaved family members peace of mind as they mourn and give a descent send off to the departed one,” he added.
CIC Bima Credo is structured in a way that the policy subscriber will do all the transactions from the mobile phone. Presently, the service is available to Safaricom network subscribers, with a portion of the airtime they purchase going towards the Life Insurance cover premiums they sign up for. In order for the cover to kick off, the subscriber is required to purchase airtime from the CIC Bima Credo Till number 181818 and follow the simple sign up steps. In the process, the customer will receive two automated text messages, one from Safaricom confirming the airtime loading and a second one from CIC Bima Credo confirming payment of the life insurance premium.
One Kenyan shilling of airtime purchased from the CIC Bima Credo Till Number 181818, entitles a customer 4.2 Kenyan shillings worth of life insurance cover, with the initial limit for Last Expense cover set at Kshs 200,000. Once the customer has attained the maximum limit during the first year, any subsequent airtime purchase is rolled over to the premiums for the next year.
Owuor explained that the CIC Bima Credo service is designed with modern realities and character of insurance customers in mind. “We appreciate that customers today are very mobile geographically and do not want to be bothered with personal visits to offices for simple transactions. Secondly, modern technology, which we have embraced with a new enterprise system capable of integrating mobile SSD and third party applications from partners such as Safaricom, is key to making this happen. Looking at the pipeline of possible services, we are confident that we are headed for a long exciting journey into the future of insurance,” said Owuor.
Bima Credo comes at a time when a large majority of our population is youthful and technologically savvy. It provides this population, numbering in the range of 20 to 25 million, a chance to be secured, further cementing CIC’s position as in the insurance industry.
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