Meet Ruth. She is a 26-year-old Nigerian girl and the proprietor of a mini pharmacy in Ilesha city in southwestern Nigeria.
Ruth, as many different Nigerian ladies, is especially weak to well being dangers and faces gender-specific challenges associated to maternity. Based on the newest Findex, sixty-two % of Nigerian ladies report being “very nervous” about not with the ability to pay for medical prices in case of a critical sickness or an accident. Ruth herself mentioned that she felt “not assured in any respect” about paying medical bills.
However in 2023, Ruth obtained a mortgage from First Metropolis Monument Financial institution (FCMB) in Nigeria and enrolled of their medical health insurance product, FCMBeta Well being–her first expertise with insurance coverage. Later, when she gave delivery to her first youngster in a hospital, she felt relaxed understanding that she would obtain a profit to assist cowl the process and keep. Due to the insurance coverage product, she obtained the equal of 80% of her common month-to-month earnings, which she used to pay her mortgage installments and purchase numerous essential items. Due to FCMBeta Well being, she now feels “very assured” that she’s going to be capable of cowl future medical bills.
Microinsurance provides a robust answer to assist low-income ladies when they’re hospitalized. Nevertheless, the trail to widespread insurance coverage adoption faces important limitations. Nigeria, regardless of being one of many largest economies in Africa, has an insurance coverage penetration fee of solely 0.5%.
In response to this problem, Girls’s World Banking, with funding assist from Swiss Re Basis and the Monetary Inclusion Fund, initiated and funded by the Authorities of Luxembourg and managed by the European Funding Financial institutionpartnered with FCMB, Hygeiaand Swiss Re to develop the FCMBeta Well being answer, a women-focused medical health insurance product in Nigeria. This product goals to scale back the monetary pressure ladies face throughout hospitalization and is bundled with FCMB’s E-Don Beta mortgage, a bunch microlending product. For simply 0.1 USD (N150) per week, which represents lower than 1% of the common weekly earnings in Nigeria, the product supplies a set profit per night time of hospitalization, a childbirth profit, and protection for the consumer, her partner, and youngsters.
Since its launch in 2023, the product has already supplied protection to over 90,000 lives. All through the challenge, Girls’s World Banking carried out two in-depth analysis actions with FCMB’s low-income ladies clients to higher perceive their wants for hospital money insurance coverage and their stage of belief in insurance coverage and supplied suggestions to extend belief.
Our analysis uncovered key insights into how hospital money insurance coverage can higher serve low-income ladies. Right here’s what we discovered.
A overwhelming majority of ladies acknowledge the necessity for hospital money insurance coverage options
90% of ladies individuals within the buyer analysis expressed a necessity for hospital money insurance coverage, because it helps them address each the direct and oblique prices of hospitalization.
“Financially, (in case you are hospitalized) it is not going to be a burden to you. They’ve eliminated some burden away from you.” (Feminine buyer, Ikwerre)
The monetary burden of hospitalization, particularly amongst low-income households, usually forces ladies to delay in search of care or return to work prematurely. Hospital money options, which function earnings alternative instruments, may alleviate this strain and supply ladies with the time they should get better absolutely.
“With this product, our clients will not be afraid to go to hospitals anymore.” (Amos Ikubese, Regional Gross sales Supervisor, Abuja/North, FCMB)
Insurance coverage is a robust device for sustaining financial savings, notably throughout maternity. Maternity-related prices are a big concern for girls, and, as one respondent defined, the supply of an insurance coverage product with a childbirth profit would assist ladies keep away from depleting their financial savings throughout childbirth—an expense that many ladies save for particularly.
Growing hospital money options additionally provides an reasonably priced assist to ladies clients. The client analysis individuals perceived the weekly premium of USD 0.10, embedded in weekly mortgage funds, as reasonably priced.
Though they perceive how the insurance coverage profit may assist them, some ladies stay skeptical about receiving it even when they’re hospitalized or giving delivery.
Our analysis discovered that 44% of ladies individuals didn’t imagine they’ll obtain a profit from insurance coverage on the time of enrolment. Even amongst those that obtained payouts, some have been initially shocked.
“Once I gave delivery, the promise they made, they fulfilled it, I didn’t even imagine it earlier than that they can provide to individuals, however when it occurred to me, they gave me cash.” (Feminine buyer, Ilesha)
The first causes for mistrust have been unfavorable previous experiences with insurance coverage, both private or involving relations, and issues about hidden exclusions.
To strengthen belief in women-centric medical health insurance and enhance scale, our expertise in Nigeria suggests the next key methods:
- Bundle insurance coverage with a product that girls belief. Given the final lack of belief in insurance coverage corporations, ladies usually tend to think about buying insurance coverage whether it is bundled with a monetary product they already belief and worth. Girls’s World Banking recommends conducting each quantitative and qualitative analysis to determine monetary providers which can be already trusted by the target market.
- Begin with a easy and reasonably priced possibility. When provided three insurance policy—particular person cowl (₦150/week), household cowl (₦350/week) and a malaria top-up (₦100/week)—95% of purchasers selected the essential particular person plan. The added complexity of presenting a number of choices proved burdensome for mortgage officers, and most clients most popular to begin with a easy, low-cost possibility to check its worth. In 2024, the group simplified the providing: all clients obtained a single insurance coverage plan at ₦150/week. Whereas this raised issues about equity, primarily that particular person purchasers would pay extra per particular person in comparison with a household plan, pilot knowledge confirmed that even clients with households hardly ever opted to cowl them. The flat-rate strategy prioritized higher outreach and ease of implementation whereas sustaining the identical blended premium fee as the unique pilot. This simplification additionally allowed FCMB to embed the premium immediately into mortgage installments.
- Publicize claims. By showcasing claims, insurers can display the tangible advantages of getting insurance coverage protection. Girls clients can see real-life examples of how the insurance coverage helped different ladies, having a direct impact on the belief they’ve within the product. One method to publicize claims might be organizing public claims disbursement occasions. Girls’s World Banking will proceed to assist FCMB, Hygeia and Swiss Re to extend uptake and utilization of the hospital money answer amongst low-income ladies in Nigeria. With continued efforts, FCMBeta Well being goals to offer monetary safety to 150,000 ladies and their households by December 2025, serving to them construct resilience within the face of health-related monetary shocks.
Though this answer provides essential monetary assist to FCMB clients, the wants for women-centric insurance coverage throughout Africa stay immense. Collective efforts of monetary providers suppliers, funders, and growth organizations are required to create insurance coverage options that girls can belief.
