Ellard Insurance Agency Ltd., a Turaco subsidiary, and One Acre Fund are pleased to announce the formal launch of their partnership, which now covers over 150,000 lives in Kenya’s 50,000 smallholder farming households.
The goal of this agreement is to create a safe net for One Acre Fund’s network of farmers against financial shocks caused by hospitalization.
In late 2021, the two businesses teamed up to offer an insurance policy that pays out overnight payback if a patient is admitted to the hospital. Prudential is underwriting this cover, called Hospital Cash.
Customers may afford this hospital coverage thanks to One Acre Fund’s novel financing approach, which includes it as part of an existing, flexible payment plan for agricultural input loans.
This approach to premium collection is preferred as opposed to making bulky annual payments, which is a norm with many traditional insurance offerings.
One Acre Fund’s Kenya CEO, John Clark, says: “We believe every farmer in Kenya deserves a pathway to prosperity, and are always working to expand our services for farmers. We’re excited to offer a health insurance product tailored to farmers, which protects families against unexpected hospital expenses and builds their financial security.”
This collaboration is another welcome addition to Turaco’s growing list of partnerships as they inch closer towards their bold audacious goal of insuring a billion people in the next 25 years. Since its launch in February 2019, Turaco and its subsidiaries have insured over 375,000 lives and paid thousands of claims with an average turnaround time of less than 3 business days.
This partnership benefited from the facilitation and mentoring from FSD Africa, and their Insurance Regulatory Authority backed Bima Lab, a key partner for Turaco in Kenya. Kenya stands out as one of the most innovation friendly regulatory environments on the continent, enabling initiatives like this to radically increase the number of people insured.
“Working with great partners is where the magic happens. Having so many farmers insured in our first year of collaboration with One Acre Fund is a testimony to the impact of strong partnerships and great products on the insurance landscape.” says Turaco Co-Founder & CEO, Ted Pantone.
