Leading microinsurance company, aYo Intermediaries Ghana, has launched yet another ground-breaking insurance package that provides up to GH¢15,000 life cover each for a group of seven family members who sign on. 

The new policy, dubbed aYo Family Cover, also provides GH¢300 per night hospitalisation cover for each of the seven persons on the policy.

And when a full year passes and no claim is made, the policyholder gets 10% of the premiums paid as cash back.

Under the package, the main policyholder is allowed to bring on six other persons, all of whom will pay only GH¢15 a month as a premium and qualify for the sum assured both for life and hospitalisation.

There is a second and even more affordable variation to the policy, where the family of seven can opt to pay GH¢10 each per month as a premium and benefit from GH¢10,000 life cover each, plus GH¢200 per night of hospitalisation.

This is the first time any insurance company is offering cover of up to GH¢15,000 plus additional money for hospitalization for as low as GH¢15 in Ghana.

Until now, aYo had offered life and hospitalisation insurance cover to only individual MTN customers through their Recharge with Care (RwC), Send with Care (SwC) and the RwC Annual Cover policies.

Under the regular RwC, MTN customers use their airtime to pay premiums of GHS6 a month and benefit from GH¢6,000 life cover plus GH¢120 per night hospitalisation cover for the policyholder and one other dependent, while SwC allows MTN mobile money customers on the scheme to pay 5% of every amount they send and stand to benefit up to GH¢30,000 life cover.

The RwC Annual Cover means customers will pay a lump sum of GHS130 per year and benefit from the RwC package, plus 10% cash back if no claims are made in a particular year.

During the launch of the new policy at Madina Market in Accra, CEO of aYo Ghana, Francis Gota noted that the Family Cover policy, which is available on *296#, was in response to feedback from customers who wanted a higher sum assured at an affordable rate.

"Because we care about our customers we sat with our partners at Sanlam Insurance, racked our brains and came up with this new, unprecedented and very affordable package that benefits not just individual MTN customers but also their family members who may not even be MTN customers," he said.

He said the policy provides cover for the insured lives up to age 80, premium payment on this policy has been made flexible such that it can be paid either monthly, quarterly or annually, depending on what is convenient for the policyholder and other members.

According to Francis Gota, the introduction of the Family Cover is a reflection of aYo's value for togetherness, support and security, which is what the policy is designed to do, by benefitting families and also reducing the financial burden on dependents.

A policy like Family Cover, he said, provides the much-need social safety net that helps vulnerable people and particularly people with low incomes to stay afloat when the unexpected happens, and that is what aYo is excited about.

He said aYo is well on course to ensure a future where every Ghanaian buys and uses insurance, adding that "we want to dispel the erroneous notion that insurance is only for the wealthy and educated."

The CEO said,  as with the other aYo products, Family Cover customers are required to maintain active Mobile Money accounts to pay premiums and receive claims, adding that as it is with RwC and SwC, claims under Family Cover will also be paid via mobile money without a hassle.

The GHS20,000 testimony

Speaking of prompt claims payment without hassle, Togbe Akpanya III, Chief of Teviefe Adome in the Volta Region, gave a very touching testimony of how aYo paid a claim of GH¢20,000 to him almost instantly when he lost three family members at a go, two of whom were insured under aYo's RwC Annual Cover.

According to the chief, his elderly sister put their younger sister on the policy as a beneficiary and name him as next of kin.

Then sometime in March this year, the younger sister passed on. While they were doing the paperwork to claim the insurance package for her, the main policyholder also passed on.

The Chief said he even forgot about the whole insurance thing because the demise of his two siblings was just too much for him to bear. So, they buried the two of them plus another family member same day.

Then in May, he got a call from aYo and the caller said it has been a while since they heard from the policyholder, his big sister, so they had to call him because he was named as next of kin.

He then told him the sad story and within days, he was invited to the aYo head office after he had provided some information to them via phone.

"As I was sitting in their office I got a notification on my phone and when I checked they had sent me GHS20,000," the chief said, adding "I was so shocked and that was when I realized that this aYo insurance thing is real."

Sanlam

Chief Executive of Sanlam Ghana, Ben Ahmed Tawiah noted that Sanlam is proud to be a partner of aYo because the company has proven to be very customer-centric by introducing very affordable insurance packages and paying claims very promptly without any hassle.

He lauded aYo for its spirited commitment to driving financial inclusion by continuously providing innovative packages that enable very low-income Ghanaians to buy and use insurance.

Over the past five years, aYo has raked in over 8.2 million individual policyholders, plus a few dependents, the company boast of providing cover for over 10 million Ghanaians.

So far, the company has paid out over GH¢14 million in more than 40,000 claims, out of which GH¢4.5 million was paid out only last year.