Carbon, a Nigeria digital financial services company, has partnered with AXA Mansard, a leading provider of insurance products and services, to launch a range of healthcare benefits for its regular customers.
As part of the new program, customers that save a minimum of N3,000 monthly with Carbon will qualify for a N20,000 cash benefit in the event that they are hospitalised for 2 or more nights. Customers that also have an existing loan that is not in arrears or do over N5,000 in transactions with Carbon monthly (transfers, bills, airtime) will also qualify for this health benefit. This cover is for a period of one month for every qualifying month on a recurring basis as long as customers continue to qualify and is currently only available to Carbon’s customers in Nigeria.
In addition to this new program, Carbon has also announced some new measures designed to ease the financial burden caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As well as providing customers who pay their loans on time with access to the new healthcare benefits, Carbon is rescheduling loans for eligible customers who experience difficulty paying back their loans. Users will also be able to make up to 30 fee-free transfers on the platform.
Across Africa, as well as the rest of the world, many lenders have stopped issuing loans to customers, potentially depriving people of funds when they need it the most. To cater for the expected increase in loan requests, Carbon has put some additional safeguards in place but will continue to disburse loans. Carbon will also keep loan amounts constant on renewals and in some cases reduce loan amounts. Repeat loan applications may also require further review but that will be kept to a minimum.
According to Ngozi Dozie, co-founder of Carbon, “Our main aim as a business is to empower our customers to live a life of dignity and prosperity. Whether that is by rewarding their discipline and loyalty or by adjusting the terms of their loans, we are committed to seeing them thrive and flourish. That is why we have rolled out these benefits and announced the new measures. We want to ensure that they have the best support and access to life-changing services, even at this difficult time.”
AXA Mansard’s Group Head, Emerging Customers, and Financial Inclusion, Alfred Egbai also added: “We are really excited to partner with Carbon to roll out these benefits across Nigeria. In Carbon, we have a partner that understands the needs of the Nigerian consumer and is committed to putting the customer first, just as we are. We are confident that, by working together, we can deliver services that add value to the lives of our customers”.
Carbon’s new range of healthcare benefits is the latest on a long list of market-leading innovation from the startup. Carbon (formerly Paylater) pioneered instant lending in Nigeria and was the first mobile app that provided access to credit digitally and without requesting individuals to present the documents and collateral traditionally associated with accessing loans.
Earlier this year, Carbon introduced an iOS app and USSD service following on from their launch in Kenya in December 2019. It also announced the launch of its Disrupt Fund, a $100,000 Pan-African fund to address the lack of capital for African tech startups.
