New Family Health Insurance Initiative for Nigerian Women Entrepreneurs
Article information and share options
In 2024, we partnered with global non-profit Women's World Banking and Nigerian health insurance provider Hygeia HMO to introduce an affordable hospital cash insurance product to foster financial inclusion in Nigeria. Ninety-eight thousand (98,000) lower income, predominately female Nigerian entrepreneurs and their families are benefitting from this new microinsurance product. Known as FCMBeta Health Insurance, the product provides a lump sum benefit for each day an entrepreneur or family member is hospitalised for any reason, including maternity care, for up to 40 nights.
Distributed by Nigeria's First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and embedded in small business loans, this initiative encourages healthcare access and offers income replacement, helping to close Nigeria's financial inclusion gender gap. According to Women's World Banking, only 35% of women and 55% of men have access to financial services in Nigeria, while health insurance coverage remains persistently low at less than 5% despite a universal health insurance mandate.
This partnership is a significant step towards our mission of providing affordable access to quality healthcare. With Swiss Re as our partner, we not only share the risk but also benefit from their expertise in pricing and data collection best practices to ensure the initiative's success. As a result, thousands of Nigerian women and their families are experiencing financial inclusion through health insurance for the first time.
This microinsurance product's success in Nigeria replicates similar initiatives spearheaded by Women's World Banking first in Jordan and later in Egypt, Morocco and Uganda. Comparable projects in other markets, however, have faced challenges due to insufficient funding, regulatory constraints and a lack of financial service providers with the necessary insurance operations capabilities and commitment to partner. The Swiss Re Foundation1 and the Financial Inclusion Fund2 provided the necessary funding for Women’s World Banking to address these challenges in Nigeria in partnership with FCMB and Hygeia HMO.
Women’s World Banking started the project with customer research, designed the insurance solution, selected Hygeia HMO as the carrier, assisted FCMB with their marketing and distribution strategy and conducted training activities. Women’s World Banking was also deeply involved in pilot monitoring and evaluation. Swiss Re then helped to scale this project further with reinsurance support. After a successful pilot in 2024, the project was expanded to 49 FCMB branches by Q3 2024, establishing it as a commercially viable solution.
Further Information
References
1 Swiss Re Foundation is an independent corporate foundation.
2 The Financial Inclusion Fund was initiated and funded by the Government of Luxembourg and is managed by the European Investment Bank.