Capital Express Assurance to provide life insurance to low-income earners

By LAMIN JAHATEH, Banjul Capital Express Assurance (Gambia) Limited has planned to aggressively promote life insurance penetration at the rural level through its suites of micro-insurance products. The focus on the rural areas is in cognizance of the fact that life insurance is beneficial for all and has to be made accessible and affordable for low- and medium-income earners. Pic: Managing Director (Mr. Adegboye in the middle) & Board Members This is part of the company’s business generation strategies for 2011, which include massive decentralization of quality life insurance services throughout the length and breadth of The Gambia. In a press conference held on Monday at the company’s head office at Sankung Sillah Building along Kairaba Avenue, Mr. Kunle Adegboye, managing director of Capital Express - the only specialised life assurance company in The Gambia, said that as part of the strategies, his company has started a massive agency network process by recruiting different cadres of agents for distribution of the company’s products to the people of The Gambia. “We have recently completed a deal with one of the largest banks in The Gambia and as part of the partnership agreement, we will have a table or a kind of small office where we can meet the insurance needs of the people, which means you don’t have to come to the head office to get your life product, you don’t have to come here to get your claim paid; right at the bank you can do your insurance transactions,” Mr Adegboye said. “We are not stopping at the banks; we are also going to get into partnership with the big supermarkets and any public place. Anywhere people frequently visit to get one form of product or service, we are going to partner with them. All this is geared towards taking insurance to the doorsteps of our clients.  In this case, anywhere that Capital Express has no branch you will see a branch of that bank, so our clients can easily walk into this bank and do their insurance transaction.  I don’t want to name the bank because they have not yet announced it.” Capital Express is the first insurance company in The Gambia to include a customer service department in its operation. With products like guarantee tuition protection plan, future income plan, annuity plan policy, credit life assurance policy, guaranteed education protection, universal life assurance plan, and personal protection plan, Mr Adegboye noted that his company is sure of providing a world class insurance services that will make a turning point in the country's insurance industry. He said the three risks – the risk of dying too soon, the risk of living too long, and the risk of becoming disabled - can all be adequately covered through any one of these pool of products. Mr Adegboye assured every individual that Capital Express will always remain true to its policy of ensuring that whoever has a genuine claim with the company is paid without hassle. “And also no matter what kind of situation they are in, we will try our level best to resolve it for them,” he said. “Our new state-of-the-art insurance software will be launched early next year,” the Capital Express MD said, adding that the company is standing on a solid rock of a high calibre of human resource with a modern sophisticated technology. “Work is already at an advanced stage on the deployment of the application and this will go-live early in the New Year,” Mr Adegboye says. The software is in line with the mission of the company, which is to provide wealth management and risk protection services to at least one member of every household where they are licensed to operate using the most sophisticated technology and manpower. With this software in place, any prospective customer of Capital Express can just walk into any business centre, have access to the internet and will be able to have a policy of Capital Express within 24 hours.  Again the existing policyholder who has access to the internet can be able to access his records, know the state of his policy and anything that he wants to know about his policy, just with a click of a button. In line with its vision to be a world class financial services provider, the company, apart from it base in the Nigerian city of Lagos, has full-fledged subsidiaries in five African countries, namely Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. ”By the grace of God, next year we will open other offices in South Africa and Mauritius,” Mr Adegboye disclosed. Niyi Onifade, Managing Director of Capital Assurance Global Franchise Ltd based in Lagos, Nigeria, says the focus of Capital Express (G) Ltd is to satisfy the life insurance needs of the people of The Gambia. He told journalists that the company is in The Gambia for the benefit of her people: “We are not in The Gambia just to make money and go; no. Our focus is to do business here, make money, provide employment for the Gambians and invest money we make in The Gambia to take the country to the next level.” Mr Onifade, who is a member of the Board of Directors of Capital Express (G) Limited, says he is convinced that The Gambia is a country they can make remarkable achievements. Since The Gambia is a predominantly Muslim state, Mr Onifade notes, Capital Express will introduce a product that will be in line with Islamic injunction. The parent company of Capital Express Assurance (G) Limited, Capital Express Assurance Group in Lagos, Nigeria, has an authorised capital of N7.5 billion. The company is reckoned to be the fastest growing life assurance company in Nigeria.