Milvik (Cambodia) Micro Insurance Plc, a mobile-based firm which offers health and insurance products to customers in Cambodia, won the 2019 Best Mobile Innovation for Health & Biotech Award at the prestigious GSMA Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona in February.
The awards ceremony recognises and celebrates the very best innovations that help evolve as well as develop the mobile industry.
In Cambodia, Milvik – who operate under the brand name Bima – and telecoms company Smart launched a partnership in 2014 to offer customers access to simple and affordable mobile-based insurance products.
Together, they offer consumers Smart Life and Smart Health Insurance. Last year Swedish micro-insurance company mHealth was launched as a loyalty programme for Smart Insurance subscribers.
The service offers customers unlimited access to quality doctors over the phone as well as free medication delivery in Phnom Penh along with their doctor’s prescriptions by SMS.
Aside from Cambodia, mHealth is also offered in Bangladesh, Ghana, Pakistan and Paraguay and currently reaches over 2.2 million customers.
Bima Cambodia country manager Tapas Kuila said the company focuses on providing the best possible mobile-based health services to the people who need them most.
“In emerging markets like Cambodia, it is common to have to travel long distances and to sacrifice long hours waiting in a clinic before seeing a doctor,” he said.
“For those who work outside of the professional sector, the hours lost also have an impact on their income and these factors often prevent people from seeking medical help when they need it.”
Smart Axiata CEO Thomas Hundt said that following the award, Bima aims to further strengthen its end-to-end solutions which address inequalities and grow mHealth by offering the service to all Bima customers across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
“Many Cambodians do not have insurance because they lack knowledge and are unable to gain access to credible insurance products,” he said.
“However, through our partnership with Bima, both companies can offer a unique agent distribution model leading to Bima being able to reach out to hundreds of thousand customers.”
