Chief Enterprise Business Officer of MTN Ghana, Angela Mensah Poku has urged insurance and pension providers to devise calculated strategies to increase the appeal and profitability of pension plans so that individuals will be more inclined to enrol on them.
Speaking at the Mobile Technology for Development during the 3i Africa Summit in Accra Angela Mensah Poku noted that many Ghanaians see no need to sign up for insurance policies and pension schemes because they believe God will provide their needs when they retire.
She also observed that the other challenge that make such scheme less appealing to Ghanaians is the way sales persons present them, often laced with deceptive promises just to woo customers and meet their sales targets.
Angela Mensah Poku emphasized the need for fund managers and insurance companies to proper educate their sales people and insist on honesty in their pitch, in order to drive public confidence in those schemes.
The other way to lower the barrier to pension and insurance enrolment, she said, is to add such products to some of the services that people already spend money on, such as airtime and data.
MTN for instance, has a subsidiary called aYo Insurance, which allows MTN customers to purchase life, hospitalization and motor insurance policies with either their airtime or mobile money, depending on which scheme the customer signs on to.
Under that scheme, customer pay as low as GHS6 from their airtime in a month and qualify for up to GHS6,000 life cover plus GHS60 per day for every day of hospitalization when it happens.
It comes in other forms where even small groups of up to seven persons can purchase policies and benefit up to GHS15,000 per head in case of the demise of a group member.
