Uwem contributory life cover

Living in Africa is hard. Majority of households have one single source of income, usually from the family head. Loss of this family head can mean the inability of the rest of the family to survive.
Families have been subjected to poverty by the death of a family head. Children have dropped out of school as a result of the death of a family head.

Traditionally the family and community offers assistance, however this support are most times not enough. Churches and age grade societies have some sort of a traditional funeral cover for members of their community.

With Uwem, we intend to increase the reach of this small scale society life covers. With a simple and affordable life cover of about a maximum of $30 for a $2500 cover, we can help the family members better navigate loss of a family head.

This model can be replicated across Africa.

Let me start with a brief story of one of our founders, Isreal. He lost his dad when he was about 11. He was the first of 3 children. Things became really hard for the family and they could barely survive. That's the story of millions of Africans across the continent. With about 40% of the entire population of the continent living in poverty(according to the OECD), the death of a family head could mean an automatic addition to the poverty figure.

In Nigeria alone, over half of the population live in extreme poverty.

The ability to get education for children has been massively hindered by death of a family head, hence the need to protect against this.

With a life cover, a family can live comfortable even after the death of a beloved family head. Children can continue their education and women won't have to deal with the harsh realities of raising children in poverty.

Uwem is a contribution based life cover, tailored after the popular community packages given to people who lost their loved ones.

Many poor Africans belong to some sort of societies, either religious or age grade.

They pay fees to this societies and incase of death, the society normally come through for them in terms of support and assistance both to cover funeral cost and to care for the children left behind.

Uwem is modeled after that. For a small yearly contribution(about a maximum of $30, we provide a cover of up to $2500 for the family left behind.

This is enough to set up a source of income for the family and allow the children continue with school.

We serve the really poor population. Mainly working family heads. We engage them mainly offline and through offline gatherings.

We hear their feedbacks and this helps us build a better product.

For  digitalization to be really inclusive, everyone needs to be carried along. You cannot really carry someone along if they do not have access due to being pushed into poverty by the death of a bread winner.

At Uwem, we provide a safety net so that children who lost their family head can still have access to the digital economy and live comfortable lives. People like Israel can go on and build the future.

We provide financial tool to enable inclusion. Financial inclusion is an integral determinant of digital inclusion.

We launched a few weeks back. Using our mobile app, we are able to onboard individuals.

Our actuarial team developed a pricing model that is both affordable and realistic.

We are currently onboarding a few early users and getting their feedbacks.

At Uwem, we are leveraging technology on an already existing framework. The community funeral cover existing in most African country is really impactful. Putting technology on it enables more people access to this framework.

We currently serve 10 persons.

In a year we would serve about 10,000 persons.

In 5 years we would serve about 10 million persons.

In 5 years, insurance penetration in Nigeria should cross the 5% mark.

We would have contributed 1% to that number every year for the next 5 years.

We are currently 4 persons and we work along with our day jobs for now.

Our founding team is made of person with experience in technology and finance.

Our Chief insurance officer has a combined actuarial and life insurance background of over 12 years experience in the retail insurance space.

As a team, we know that a diverse team is a high performing team.

Over the cause of the year, we intend to hire more women and marginalized persons to build a more diverse team.

Our solution has an impact on education especially of children who might not be able to get education after the loss of either father or mother.

With the fund, we would be better able to reach more persons especially in rural areas.

Also, we would be spending a lot on educating people about the benefits of having a cover.

Digital inclusivity is nothing without financial inclusivity. 

Giving people access to financial tools like a cover enables them access to the digital age.

Using our mobile application we would enable local kiosk owners serve as agents and earn commission from sales of cover to their community members.

Majority of women in Africa bear the brunt of loss of their husbands.

When the head of a household, mostly the man, dies, the woman is subjected to a lot of inhumane treatment that can be avoided if she had financial freedom.

Uwem would have a lot of impact on this women as we provide them safety nets in case of lost of their husbands.

Loss of a family head is a major crises that affects persons in the rural areas of Africa.

With Uwem, we intend to provide a safety net for family members and children,helping them live a productive life even after the death of a bread winner.