Insurance Intermediary aYo Zambia has launched a new General Illness Cover benefit, which will provide cover for customers who spend a minimum of three (3) nights in hospital because of sickness or disease, as it looks to drive greater insurance penetration in the country.
The new illness cover is an enhancement of the company’s existing ‘Recharge with Care’ product, which provides accidental injury under hospital cover for customers if they are involved in any accident.
“To date, more than 3.5 million Zambian consumers have purchased cover to protect themselves against hospitalisation in the event of injury, or loss of life,” said aYo Zambia CEO Andrew Nkolola. “But many of our customers have been asking us: ‘How will we deal with the financial blow of falling ill? We don’t want benefits only when we’re in an accident.’ We realised it was a huge gap in the market and have responded accordingly.”
Nkolola says aYo Zambia is committed to contributing to the growth of insurance in the country. Earlier this year, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane expressed his concern over Zambia’s low insurance penetration levels, which leaves millions of Zambians without cover if a disaster strikes.
When it first launched in Zambia in 2020, the aYo product offered hospital and life cover to individuals only through two insurance products, ‘Send with Care’ and ‘Recharge with Care’. A growing market demand for insurance for the whole family prompted the company to create the new Family Cover product last year, which allows policy holders to add up to seven people, including themselves spouse, children and extended family members.
Now, the new General Illness Cover as part of the Recharge with Care product option adds a further layer of protection that helps ordinary Zambians stay afloat when the unexpected happens. It pays up to K3,250 if a policyholder is hospitalised through illness.
As with aYo’s existing products, General Illness Cover customers must maintain active Mobile Money (MoMo) accounts to pay premiums and claim. Customers can sign up and claim by dialling the USSD code *296# on their mobile phones and following the prompts. They can also claim using the mobile web app on ayo4u.com/zm. All Family Cover claims are paid directly to the claimant’s mobile money wallet without any hassles.