Insurance company African Unity Life (AUL) has partnered with Spazapp to offer affordable funeral cover that can be purchased using a mobile phone at 'spaza' shops.
Spazapp is a free mobile app that connects spaza store owners directly to bulk buying opportunities at large FMCG brands, including Unilever and Tiger Brands. It also lets store owners sell other services, like airtime.
The funeral cover can be topped up monthly or bought in advance. The service will operate the same as buying electricity credits or lotto tickets from a mobile vendor.
It will first be rolled out in Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal and then move across the country. A hundred existing Spazapp vendors will participate in this first phase, during which they will earn an income from commission on the products they sell.
"We believe this model of mobile sales of funeral insurance is a first, and we are proud to have initiated a new channel of delivering a product that gives our customers the peace of mind that their loved ones will have financial support at the most difficult time," says Sonja Visser, CEO of AUL.
"Phase one of the project will allow us to test the market and iron out any kinks in the sales and purchasing process," says Visser. "We are looking forward to seeing the interest and adoption levels of our product, using this innovative approach to sales."
To buy, customers register once with the mobile vendor and can then conduct their top-up transactions securely at their local spaza store. They will receive SMS updates to inform them their cover is active, that they are nearing the end of their cover period, or that their cover has expired. They will not need to register again to purchase further cover.
"Through our partnership with AUL, we are now able to offer funeral cover, which is an insurance product that is extremely valuable to our customers, but that they struggle to find or pay for near their homes or work," says Tim Strang, CEO of Spazapp.
"We are very excited about this huge step forward in our product offering and anticipate the service will go from strength to strength."
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