Case Study

Madison Insurance, Zambia Case Study

Effective partnerships Promoting the role of micro-insurance in Zambia
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This case study documents the experience of Madison Insurance Zambia Limited (Madison) in providing insurance to MFI clients through a partner-agent model. The paper discusses:

  • The steady expansion of micro-insurance provision in Zambia;
  • Credit life and funeral coverage as the main insurance products;
  • The difficulty in tracking the impact of HIV/AIDS on portfolio quality;
  • The MFIs that Madison works with;
  • The lack of a regulatory framework for micro-insurance.

The paper discusses how partnering with MFIs has helped both Madison and the MFIs. It then presents a number of lessons for the provision of micro-insurance through the partner-agent model, which include:

  • The insurer should expand its role to include client education, marketing and assessing client satisfaction;
  • MFIs should ensure that clients understand exactly how much they are paying for insurance;
  • Staff responsible for servicing insurance products should receive adequate training to enable them to effectively educate clients;
  • Insurance should be well marketed;
  • Funeral insurance could be made voluntary, especially if it is covering other family members;
  • There should be no link between insurance benefits and loan repayments;
  • The MFI should check whether it has the capacity to act as an agent of insurance;
  • Profit sharing seems to work better than giving the MFIs a commission for their efforts;
  • Micro-insurance facilitates access to loans by HIV patients who are not yet in a critical condition.

About this Publication

By Manje, L.
Published