The International Conference on Inclusive Insurance (ICII) 2023, held in Accra, Ghana, was widely considered a great success. With over 430 attendees from around 52 countries, the event brought together many of the biggest and most innovative and influential organisations in microinsurance. The many lessons learned through the engaging sessions were insightful, while the opportunity to network, collaborate and share experiences meant that individuals often broke out into discussion groups during breaks.
The event was a success for the Microinsurance Network (MiN) in several ways. The ICII typically serves as a soft launchpad for the annual Landscape of Microinsurance. The 2023 report will be the most comprehensive edition to date: around 300 insurance providers were surveyed across 36 countries. Beyond the rich content, the conference showcased the progress made by MiN members among microinsurance peers. Of the approximately 102 speakers and moderators, around one-third were staff from companies that are MiN members.
MiN members were among the moderators and speakers for all workshops, as well as the majority of all plenaries and parallel sessions. Among these statistics, two stand out. The first is that the presence of speakers from MiN members for each workshop demonstrates a clear observation: through their individual and collective experience, members are playing a pivotal role in sharing knowledge and best practice with the wider industry. This is hardly surprising, given the Network’s tradition of encouraging greater dialogue, exchange and collaboration between members.
The second observation is that all speakers in the sessions on overcoming challenges and health insurance were employees from member companies. Over the last five years, MiN members have demonstrated innovation across several types of microinsurance products. Among these, health and life insurance remain an important product that many members are committed to scaling. Providers have used different approaches to scale their products. For instance, Hollard Life Insurance in Ghana relies on different partnerships to distribute its two microinsurance products among customers who trust their partner’s brand (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Strategic partnerships employed by Hollard Life Insurance Ghana
Product name | Target audience | Product type | Strategic partner |
Asomdwee MSME Insurance | Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) | Property, public liability, and life insurance | Ghana Enterprises Agency |
MeBanbɔ | Vodafone Ghana customers | Funeral and disability cover | Sasai Fintech and and Vodafone Ghana |
Source: ICII 2023
Beyond health and life microinsurance, index insurance remains a popular product. While typically used for agricultural insurance, providers have adapted how indices can be used. In May 2023, we profiled IBISA Network’s heat insurance product that covers farmers for economic losses due to heat stress on their animals. Blue Marble Microinsurance – another MiN member – also piloted a heat insurance product in 2023 (Figure 2). The product was launched in partnership with Arsht-Rock and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), an Indian trade union with 2.5 million female members. After the pilot, the partners aim to scale the product up to all of SEWA’s members across 18 states in India. However, Blue Marble’s real innovative aim is to develop a forecast-based heat stress product. This will enable pay-outs to be made ex-ante rather than ex-post (i.e., before an event rather than after).
Figure 2: Details on Blue Marble’s heat insurance product
| Target audience | Around 21,000 women members of SEWA – based in Ahmedabad, India |
| Product details | Weather index insurance to supplement women's income during periods of extreme heat |
| Index details | Maximum of moving sums of the maximum daily temperature over three consecutive days |
| Season | 1 May to 30 June 2023 |
| Data source | NASA POWER |
| Payout channel | Beneficiaries bank accounts via SEWA |
Source: ICII 2023
Blue Marble’s example also showcases a product aimed primarily at women, for whom there are few tailored insurance products. A lack of specific services is a significant barrier to women’s uptake of microinsurance products. However, there remain good examples of where a product is aimed at a wide customer base yet can be targeted at women. BIMA, one of the earliest digital health microinsurance providers globally, uses telemedicine to offer doctor consultations to their customers in Ghana. This is part of BIMA’s aim to bridge the gap to universal health coverage in the country by using technology to build trust. BIMA found that women are not only the primary beneficiaries of telemedicine consultations, but also the main consultation providers: 57 per cent of customers are women, while 60 per cent of consultations were carried out by women doctors.
These case studies show how some microinsurance providers – MiN members in particular – have innovated to design products, reach their target audiences or narrow the insurance gender gap.
Providers have had to constantly adapt and develop new solutions, be it using new or existing technology or forging non-traditional partnerships. These examples prove that innovation is a key driving force behind microinsurance services.