SUNDAY, 25 MARCH 2012 18:56 MANUEL T. CAYON / REPORTER
DAVAO CITY—The Philippine success in extending microfinance credit to
the poor shows that this sector at and below the poverty threshold could
also become worthy of insurance coverage, the Insurance Commission here
said.
At present, about 3.1 million poor Filipinos have been covered by the
government program on microinsurance since the project was started in
2010, said Emmanuel F. Dooc, chairman of the Insurance Commission, the
government supervisory agency.
Microinsurance offers as low as P1 per day worth of buying one of the
government-approved 59 microinsurance products, with the government
wanting to cover the poor with the basic product BBK, for "Buhay, Bahay
at Kabuhayan" (health and accident, house and livelihood), he said.
Or the premium could go higher but should not go beyond 5 percent of the
total earning of a policyholder, he added.
A microinsurance policy could have an insurance coverage of P10,000 to
as much as P200,000.
Dooc said the commission wanted to cover all the households in the
population's 27 percent below the poverty level. "I may be ambitious but
our success in microfinance has told us that even the poor is worth the
financial protection it needs."
An innovation in insurance activity in the microinsurance program was
the coverage of properties and livelihood affected by disasters.
"Agricultural crops and the stalls of vendors would be covered to
provide them extra protection, especially if they live in the most
disaster-prone villages."
The Insurance Commission would be holding 16 regional road shows to drum
up support to the program and to spread the information to the target
clients.
He said 15 mutual benefit insurance and 19 insurance companies have
listed as agents, along with 18 rural banks.
Dr. Joselito Almario, deputy executive director of the National Credit
Council of the Department of Finance, said the Insurance Commission has
tapped cooperatives and associations to extend the reach of the program.
He said the commission was also studying the experience in Quezon City
where it tapped a barangay government to gather its constituents to be
covered.
He said the program has simplified the application as well as it sped up
the payment "because for the poor, cash is very urgent during disasters
and accidents." He said claims could be paid in a day.
Before, he said, insurance companies shun the poor "but with a
98-percent repayment success in our microfinance, we have shown them
that the poor could pay better than their usual clients." He said that
the banking sector could only notch an 85-percent collection rate.
"We also show them, by comparison, that the poor protects their
properties better than the rich," he said. "For instance, we ask them
which one is a risky investment: the rich who wants multiple coverage of
one of his fleet of cars, or the poor fisherman, who would leave his
wife at the shore to run to where his boat was and ensure that it would
be securedly tied to a post at a coming typhoon?"
"Now, even the big names in insurance business have registered. That's
an indication that there's a future in this undertaking," Almario said.
Hiroyuki Aoki, senior finance analyst at the Asian Development Bank,
said his office has allocated $1 million to support the program, from
its conception and marketing, to putting up the mechanism to the
information and dissemination campaign and materials. He said the amount
was being released in tranches, since 2008, and up to the present
campaign road shows.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CARLOS ANI - International Microfinance Consultant - SEEDFINANCE Corporation Chairman
Mailing address: PO Box 90 UPLB Los Banos Laguna, Philippines 4031
Emails: carlosani@gmail.com , carlosani@seedfinance.net
Landline Phone: +63495010127 (PLDT)
Cellphone Numbers: +639152919580 (Globe) and +639328590859 (Sun)
Websites:
CARLOSANI.COM - http://www.carlosani.com
DEVJOBS - http://www.devjobsmail.com
PHILDEVFINANCE - http://phildevfinance.posterous.com
My News Clippings - http://www.myclipps.posterous.com
Family website - http://www.anifamily.net
SEEDFINANCE Corporation - http://www.seedfinance.net
Skype name: carlosaniph
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
