Prudential Zenith Life Insurance Launches Mobile Payment Platform

Peter Uzoho

Prudential Zenith Life Insurance has launched a payment service which allows mobile phone customers in Nigeria to buy protection policies wherever they are.

Customers who dial *5966# on their mobile phones would be able to purchase a life insurance or hospital cash plan policy in a matter of minutes.

Speaking at the launch of the product in Lagos on Wednesday, the Chairman of Prudential Zenith Life, Mr. Jim Ovia, said “We are pleased to announce this exciting and innovative initiative that will democratise access to insurance for all Nigerians. We are strongly committed to deepening financial inclusion”.

Ovia, said the aim of the mobile insurance platform was to support the financial inclusion drive of the federal government as well as deepen insurance penetration in Nigeria.

He said through the platform, the insurer would bring a million people into the insurance sector every year, noting that the mobile insurance would become a game-changer in the Nigerian insurance space.

Ovia said so many people have been excluded from financial services because of limited access available to individuals who want to participate and because it is expensive to reach those excluded.

According to him, financial inclusion is the only way to attract millions of Nigerians that had hitherto been excluded.

Ovia added: “We all know what financial inclusion means or what financial exclusion is. You cannot develop any economy anywhere in the world without bringing in those who have been excluded from participating in various products and services that will empower them.

“Insurance is a very powerful tool to bring people out of poverty. Take for example, if an average guy in the village has his house burnt down, he begs the community people, the villagers, to contribute to help him.

“But in many cases they cannot help him enough. How does he recover? Through insurance.

“But many of them do not know how to reach out to get insurance cover, and beside, the premium for normal traditional insurance products and services is almost unbelievable. So they won’t be able to have access to that, and it is too expensive for them.

“But through mobile insurance they could pay in piecemeal on a monthly basis through their mobile phone and they are covered.”

“And I had promised this gathering sometime at the beginning of last year that in the next few years we will have over five million insured through mobile insurance.

“Now, in a period of one year you could have one million”.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of Prudential Africa, Matt Lilley said: “We launched Prudential Zenith Life in 2017 to help minimize uncertainty from the lives of Nigerians. I believe that this service will make it easier for people to access life insurance cover that gives them and their families financial peace of mind, if an accident or the worst were to happen.”

Also, the Chief Executive Officer of Zenith General Insurance, Mr. Kehinde Borisade, said the mobile insurance platform would give direct access to insurance protection to millions of Nigerians.

Prudential Zenith Life Insurance Limited is part of Prudential Plc, one of the oldest and most strongly capitalised life insurance companies in the world. It provides a range of insurance and investment-linked savings products designed to suit corporate and individual customers’ budgets.