By Joyce Babayeju
Avon Healthcare Limited, a leading health management organisation has partnered with pan-African financial institution, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, to develop well-tailored and unique health plans for children.
The collaboration to develop the new health plans became necessary due to the gap that exists in the area of child healthcare and both organisations have joined forces to change the narrative where children are usually not adequately insured while also ensuring the achievement of universal health coverage in Nigeria especially for the children.
The new healthcare plan tagged the UBA Kiddies Health Plan has two variants: the UBA Kiddies Plus and Prestige which allows individuals with UBA Kiddies or UBA Teens account easy access to affordable healthcare services without paying out of their pocket.
Specifically, this well-designed healthcare plan will allow Avon HMO to tap into an existing base of thousands of customers who have active UBA accounts or seek to open these accounts to enable them access great healthcare services.
The Head of Retail Sales and Partnerships at Avon HMO, Dr Babajide Oyeduntan, who threw more light on this partnership, said this initiative, is in line with the organisation’s reputation for innovatively expanding healthcare access through strategic collaborations with forward-thinking companies.
Oyeduntan said, “Over the years, we have launched a series of products in partnership with various entities with the overall aim of improving healthcare access. Only recently, we launched the Kaffy Health Plan for the entertainment industry, as well as bespoke health plans for women with Shecluded – a female-oriented financial services company. Therefore, the newly launched Kiddies Health Plan in partnership with UBA further emphasises our commitment to securing the health of our children and improving healthcare access for all Nigerians.”
The Head, Personal Banking at UBA Group, Ogechi Altraide, said that UBA is excited to partner with Avon to give UBA customers the opportunity to enjoy access to dental care, eye tests/surgeries, back-to-school checks and many more, which she stated are part of the organisation’s promise to help its customers get more value from their loyalty to the bank.
She said, “Despite their susceptibility to sickness, children remain one of the least insured in the country. Meanwhile, healthcare insurance is by far the most important predictor of whether children will receive much-needed health care. The launch of this new health plan is, therefore, an important milestone for us as we continue to put our customer first.”
With less than five percent of the country’s population under any sort of heath cover, there remains a lot to be done to improve healthcare access. As such, these new products from Avon HMO and UBA are key signposts in the country’s journey towards achieving universal health coverage.
