Airtel, AXA Mansard to unveil mobile health insurance via USSD

Airtel Nigeria, a telecommunications services provider, on Saturday said it is partnering with AXA Mansard, to help deepen access, participation and enrolment in health insurance by more Nigerians.

This is contained in a statement by Airtel and made available to newsmen in Lagos on Saturday.

It stated that the partnership is in response to the Federal Government’s goal through its National Health Insurance Scheme, that easy access to healthcare should be provided for all Nigerians.

Airtel stated it will be done by leveraging on the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel, an easy-to-use and interactive platform.

“By dialing the short code *987*7#, Airtel customers can now conveniently enroll for affordable and robust health insurance plans from AXA Mansard, with access to over 1,000 hospitals nationwide for quality healthcare services,” it added.

The statement quoted Mr Muyiwa Ebitanmi, Head of Mobile Financial Services, Airtel , as saying that the initiative demonstrates Airtel’s commitment to provide innovative and relevant solutions that will empower more Nigerians to conveniently access best-in-class health insurance.

Ebitanmi said: “Airtel Nigeria is always exploring innovative ways and platforms that will make life easier, more meaningful and more enjoyable for Nigerians.

“With this initiative, we are not just delivering quality health insurance services to the doorstep of more people, we are also leading a quiet revolution that will drive and deepen health insurance inclusion.

“This will remove the many barriers that have excluded many well-meaning Nigerians from participating in the sector.”

It also quoted Mr Alfred Egbai, Head, Emerging Customers and Digital Partnerships Group at AXA Mansard, as saying that research showed that it is important to have a health insurance plan for the public.

He, however, said that for many reasons the uptake of insurance products has been low.

Egbai noted “to mitigate these challenges and satisfy the health needs of the retail consumer, the company partnered with Airtel to provide a solution that gives users a convenient way to purchase and manage their AXA Mansard micro-insurance plans.

He said that Malaria In-patient, out-patient, specialist medical consultations, immunizations, family planning, ambulance services, and dental care are some of the covers provided in the AXA Mansard Health plans.

“The challenges to the implementation of health insurance schemes includes low level of awareness, affordability, ineffective distribution systems and inefficient payment models.

“The partnership between Airtel Nigeria and AXA Mansard is aimed at solving these challenges and assisting Nigerians to access a viable health insurance scheme,” he said.