Sari-sari store owners can soon avail of micro-insurance for their business through a “sachet” or tingi-tingi financial technology product introduced recently by Voyager Innovations’ FinTQ through its KasamaKA NegoSure platform.
Through KasamaKA NegoSure, micro-entrepreneurs can safeguard their livelihood by simply filling up a form and availing of micro-insurance packages, eliminating heavy paperwork and documentation required traditionally by insurance companies.
The product was initially offered to sari-sari store owners at the recently concluded 10th Anniversary of Unilever’s Super!Store program. Around 500 Unilever’s Super!Store owners were provided with NegoSure coverage. In the coming months, FinTQ will announce the full commercial availability of the product to the market.
“The sari-sari store is the social pantry of every village across the country, yet majority of the 1-million strong neighborhood stores are outside the reach of the financial system. With this sachet insurance, we are effectively bringing access to affordable financial products to microentrepeneurs through their most ubiquitous device, their mobile phone,” said Lito Villanueva, managing director of FinTQ, the financial technology arm of PLDT-owned digital solutions firm Voyager Innovations.
The innovation supports Voyager and FinTQ’s “Road to 20 by 2020” goal of bringing 20 million Filipinos into the formal financial system by 2020, in line with the government’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion objectives.
The NegoSure will be made available to all types of sari-sari stores, from big stores with 500 pieces of canned and bottle goods to small stores carrying below 199 pieces of goods. The sachet product covers the reconstruction of the sari-sari store in case of a fire accident, as well as provides coverage for the sari-saristore owner for non-fire-related accidents.
Studies cite affordability as a major challenge in availing most insurance products for consumers and entrepreneurs. In a 2007 study done by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, uninsured customers who indicate their willingness to get covered emphasize that price should be within their capacity to pay (P20-P30 a week).
Under NegoSure, sari-sari store owners would be able to choose from three options:
- Plan 1200 with P100,000 reconstruction benefit and P200,000 personal accident benefit for one year
- Plan 480 with P40,000 reconstruction benefit and P80,000 personal accident for one year
- Plan 25 with P20,000 reconstruction benefit
“FinTQ is introducing NegoSure to the market with a simple yet profound goal in mind: ensure that the unbanked and underserved will finally be able to protect their business from any accident and thus grow their business without being burdened by the heavy cost of financial products,” Villanueva added.
FinTQ is rolling out NegoSure as part of its commitment to include the vast unbanked and underserved population into the formal financial system through its broader grassroots-based movement KasamaKA.
KasamaKA, launched at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last year, is a grassroots-based, self-help, and digital-enabled social intervention and last-mile solution to promote financial literacy and inclusive growth.
Under the KasamaKA, Filipinos can earn additional income through referral, as well as gain wider access to a savings account and microinsurance for a minimal fee and affordable loans simply with the use of their mobile phones.
