Nairobi, Kenya (CU)_ UK’s MicroEnsure and Kenya’s ImaliPay have teamed up to provide digital insurance to Africa’s gig workers. MicroEnsure has now merged with Micro Insurance Company. According to MicroEnsure, the insurance products will provide a safety net for the underprivileged sector, allowing people to quickly recover during abnormal circumstances. Micro Insurance Company (MIC) offers economical end-to-end microinsurance products to the huge market.
ImaliPay is a venture capital-sponsored all-African financial services network that provides loans, savings, and insurance to Africa’s gig economy platforms through a single channel or API. ImaliPay also uses short-term financing to help its consumers make more money from their gig job. The insurance products will focus mainly on the Kenyan customer base of gig workers.
The company said, “This partnership will empower gig workers by providing insurance tailored to their needs and their level/proportion of income generation. Furthermore, the addition of this insurance product will help improve the quality of life for delivery, ride-sharing, and mobility sector workers”.
The company stated that even in the midst of Covid-19 outbreak, a large number of gig workers, particularly in the ride-sharing industry, remained active. The report said, “Due to the nature of their jobs, they remain at high risk for contracting Covid-19 with minimal access to insurance coverage to protect them. Therefore, this insurance product will cover Covid-19 as well as a range of other risks including health, death, disability, and property destruction”.
Wairimu Njoki, East Africa MicroEnsure country manager expressed delight over the new partnership. He said, “We are delighted to be partnering with ImaliPay to boost the rising gig economy by providing social protection through innovative, need-based insurance. This is in line with our audacious goal of insuring the 4 billion un/underinsured lives globally.”
Tatenda Furusa, co-founder of ImaliPay spoke about the company’s interest in customer satisfaction. He said, “At the very heart of our business, we are concerned with redefining our customer experience by providing a wider product basket and prioritising the products that are most important/necessary to our customers. Insurance sits right at the forefront of our customer needs and we’re happy to be catering to those needs with this collaboration.”
