Blog
Tigo: mobile insurance in Ghana
After Ella’s father died, her Tigo insurance paid for the funeral expenses and helped her complete her education as a teacher. What sets Tigo apart from other providers is that clients access it completely via their mobile phones. Tigo made a big bet that offering free insurance for people who used airtime on their mobile phones would pay for itself by reducing churn and increasing use of airtime. “They doubled the insurance market in its first year of operation,” says Peter Gross, Africa Regional Director at MicroEnsure. “Ninety-three percent of clients were brand new to insurance.” Airtime users can double their coverage by signing on to a paid plan, and plenty are: 30 percent end up converting to a pay-for-insurance model.
Tigo doubled the insurance market in Ghana overnight. Today, 1.3 million Ghanaians are insured through Tigo. The Tigo case has surprised many in the industry because it demonstrated that the business model works for all three parties involved–the insurance companies, the telecoms, and the clients.
Written, produced, and directed by Jeanette Thomas.
Filmed by Peter Cairns.
Edited by Marc Allard.
Uncovering the hidden financial strategies of the poor in India
CGAP travels to Bangalore, India to create profiles of people living in poor neighborhoods, and uncover some of the complex financial management strategies that go on beneath the surface.
Written, produced, and directed by Jeanette Thomas.
Filmed and edited by Peter Cairns.
Life’s a Lottery: Insuring the poor in Kenya
Can games and entertainment help insure the poor in Africa? CGAP, Continuum, and MicroEnsure use human-centered design in Kenya to develop a new microinsurance product shaped by what they see and hear from customers.
Written, produced and directed by Jeanette Thomas
Filmed and edited by Peter Cairns
Meet the Innovators
Meet just a few of the innovators who are forging a new future for the Western Balkans in this video we made for The World Bank. The video was screened at a ministerial meeting in Zagreb hosted by The World Bank, European Commission and the Regional Co-operation Council.
The countries of the former Yugoslavia are hardly famous for their entrepreneurial spirit. But the region is changing, and startups are emerging that set their sights beyond smaller domestic markets and instead look to European and world markets.
Filmed and edited by Peter Cairns.
Written, produced, and directed by Jeanette Thomas.
No Near Bank: financial inclusion in the Philippines
This 6’30 film shows how an enlightened approach to financial regulation is opening up opportunities to create innovations for poor and low income customers in the Philippines.
Before G-Cash came to the island of Rapu-rapu, customers had to take a 3-hour boat ride to the nearest bank branch in Legazpi, with only two passenger boats a day, to do basic banking. Today they can receive remittances and pay bills using a cellphone through the local grocery store, a G-Cash agent.
In Manila, we see low income clients in Quezon City opening new bank accounts through their local pharmacy store. Outsourced Know Your Customer, or KYC rules, allow trained agents to verify the identity of people opening new accounts. Regulations have allowed the banks to accept Barangay certificates, the certification of a local community leader, for ID purposes.
These efforts to create regulation that promotes financial inclusion can actually contribute to financial stability and integrity, says Pia Roman of the Philippines central bank.
Chemen Lavi Miyò: Pathway to a Better Life
This 8-minute film follows case workers in Haiti’s central plateau as they work with new members of a program to reach people living in extreme poverty. The program – Chemen Lavi Miyò or “Pathway to a Better Life” in Haitian creole – is testing a new approach to helping people living in extreme poverty to transition into a sustainable way of life. This highly structured and intensive program combines livelihoods and basic support with training and financial management so that at the end of just 18 months, participants will be equipped with the skills and a business plan to move themselves out of poverty.
“What we want to demonstrate,” says Anne Hastings, director of the program, is that there is a “proven, replicable, methodology for accompanying people as they struggle to make their way out of these conditions into a …decent standard of living.” She wants to scale up the program to reach every single village in Haiti, and to demonstrate to the world that “it isn’t rocket science to eliminate this kind of poverty… It doesn’t take a genius to implement this model. It just takes dedication to working with this population group.”
Camera/editing Peter Cairns
Producer/director Jeanette Thomas