UAE: Comparison website partners Takaful Emarat to offer online health plan
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Jan 2018
Souqalmal.com, UAE’s leading comparison website, has signed a partnership agreement with Takaful Emarat to sell the Islamic insurer’s mandatory health insurance products via Souqalmal’s comprehensive digital platform.
This move makes Souqalmal the first aggregator in the UAE to provide customers with the ability to buy Dubai’s mandatory health insurance plan online for their dependents, the company said. The expansion follows Souqalmal’s recent announcement of the completion of a Series B funding exercise involving US$10 million in which Go Compare, UAE Exchange and Riyad Taqnia Fund participated. The company’s goal with the new funding is to expand in the region and into different insurance verticals such as health.
The partnership with Takaful Emarat is formed at a time of expected growth in the health insurance market in the UAE – with the average healthcare spending per capita standing at $1,500 annually. Growth is supported by the mandatory health insurance initiative led by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA).
Ms Ambareen Musa, Founder & CEO of Souqalmal, said: “As a result of the new DHA Law, mandatory health insurance has become an extremely popular topic on our platform, as no one can renew their visa without a health insurance certificate. As these are fixed price health insurance products, our consumers have been proactively requesting to purchase it online in the same way they can purchase their car insurance on souqalmal.com. We listened to our customers and partnered up with Takaful Emarat to launch this service online.”
Mr Mohammad Alhawari, Takaful Emarat’s Managing Director & Executive Board Member, said: “Through this partnership with Souqalmal, we are taking our customer offering to a whole new level by providing them access to our products through an enhanced digital platform. This in turn will open up new markets and sales channels for our digitised insurance products and services.
“This partnership is just the beginning of the rollout of our digital initiatives, which reflects the vision of the Takaful Emarat Board and senior management to be a leading player within both the traditional and emerging digital insurance space.” M