Sovereign Trust pushes products to the grassroots in local dialects

 Underwriting firm, Sovereign Trust Insurance plc has taken another giant stride by ensuring that some of its personal line products get into the nooks and crannies of Nigeria with the adoption of a nationwide radio campaign in local dialects. The campaign is designed in two modes made up of programme sponsorship and airing of commercial jingles in Yoruba, Hausa and Pidgin in some selected radio stations across the major commercial cities in the country. The cities include Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Sokoto, Kano and a host of others.

One of the major products on offer is the company’s flagship product with the acronym SWIS-F, (Sovereign Wellbeing Insurance Scheme for the Family). The product is a General Personal Accident, GPA policy with varied features and benefits designed to cater for the family in any situation of eventuality. The premium for this package is One Thousand Five Hundred Naira (N1,500) per annum. The benefits range from out-of-work benefit resulting from any form of accident; covers medical expenses of the insured arising from accident, payment of wellbeing lump-sum and gives free cover for the 4th child under the age of 17. Features include 10 percent no-claim bonus, affordable and flexible premium payment, covers strike and civil commotion and has no geographical limitation.

With the current campaign, the underwriting firm is set to promote products under the Market Development & Restructuring Initiative, MDRI. These products are basically designed to cater for third party liabilities whenever the need arises. They consist of the Third Party Motor Insurance, Occupiers’ Liability, Builders’ Liability and the Professional Healthcare Indemnity Insurance. For personal line products, prospective customers across the country can buy the Householders’/Houseowners’ policy, Fire & Burglary and All Risks Insurance for every of their private belongings in any of Sovereign Trust Insurance offices across the nation.

Lanre Ojuola, AGM/head, Direct Marketing, stated that the move to embark on the radio vernacular campaign became necessary to erase the impression that insurance is only meant for the rich and mighty. In his words, “we have carefully studied the market and came to the conclusion that a greater percentage of our prospective customers reside in the grassroots areas and could be denied the opportunity of knowing what benefits they could derive from having an insurance cover, hence, the need to take this information to them via the local languages on radio stations”. Segun Bankole, the company’s spokesman explained that the adaptation of the media campaign in vernacular is to further entrench the Brand’s recall rate amongst the identified social class with a view to developing strong business opportunities in those climes.

Wale Onaolapo, managing director said that “the idea behind the initiative is to ensure that the generality of the target audience are well covered and can easily connect with the product and make informed decision in taking any of the policies applicable to them.