Mutual Benefits gets award for contribution to transport sector

Mutual Benefits Assurance plc has continued to earn accolades for an unwavering commitment to development of the transportation sector, through which it has created huge employment, economic empowerment and insurance protection for families.

Last week, the company won the Award for the Most Supportive Insurance Company to Transport Sector in Lagos State, where Bamidele Badejo, former commissioner for Transportation in Lagos State presented the award organized a renowned Magazine.

The investment in transportation including the Lagos State Bus Rapid Transport; Airport Car Hire Association Partnerships, Erewole Ekiti Kete Scheme and the Motor Cycle Empowerment programme in the North, the Company said were avenues to create economic value across the country, using insurance as vehicle.

Akin Ogunbiyi, group managing director, Mutual Benefits Group said the Company’s strategy is to take insurance to the nook and crannies in the country, by providing platforms that people of all segment can associate with and through this find need for insurance.

“Through this platform, we have generated huge insurance premiums that were lying untapped, which ordinarily would not have found its way into insurance.”

The new goal of the company he noted is impacting development and growth of Nigeria economy through creating dynamism, partnership and of course empowerment.

“In the Lagos State transport scheme, we are almost the last man standing now when it comes to transportation and involvement of private sector and that scheme alone employed about 1,200 graduates and this is exactly what we want insurance to do, create value and then empower people”.

According to Ogunbiyi, each bus employs 4 staff, that work on shifts, some work 5.30am in the morning to 2.00pm and 2.00pm to 10.00pm and these are all empowerments.

“There is the Airport Car Hire Association of Nigeria (ACHAN), where we have over 400 Camry cars across the ten functional airports in Nigeria. We are not Father Christmas because for every empowerment we did, there is insurance element attached. So in each of the 400 Camry cars, we are offering group life cover, which premium wouldn’t have come to the industry. Again for the cars, many of them would have opted for third party, but we made it part of the package, that they have to do comprehensive.”

“Of course, why did this come up? They didn’t just come to us, we went to them to educate them on the benefit they can get. That was when the federal government said ‘for you to operate car hire at the airport, this is the particular type of car that you have to use.’

“If you don’t have a Mutual Benefits that can think outside the box, that have creative dynamism, all those people would have been disengaged and become the unemployed.

“But Mutual Benefits came with this scheme, and we have about 250 different National Union of Road Transport Workers’ associations in Lagos and we are working with all of them.