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Opinions of Tuesday, 29 December 2020

Columnist: Emmanuel Owusu Agyei Ampem

Employers, put a life insurance cover on your employees.

Emmanuel Owusu Agyei Ampem  is the Lead Convener of the Ghana Youth Economic Forum Emmanuel Owusu Agyei Ampem is the Lead Convener of the Ghana Youth Economic Forum

Critical illness and accidents are one of the most unexpected misfortunes to happen to every individual. Indeed, no one expected the unexpected Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020, as we begun with lots of hopes of aspirations. As we recover from this pandemic in Africa which has over this short period crippled our economies and cut our GDP growth rate by 3% to 8%, we only hope and not give up in despair. The Pandemic has really shown us that, governments, private sector and institutions need to double down on their proven resolve and significantly expand existing efforts to protect our economies and livelihoods across the continent as McKinsey and Co puts it.

It is very glaring that, before Covid-19, we have been experiencing rise in critical illnesses, No Bed Syndrome, low doctor-to-patient ratio among others. Withstanding, most countries on the continent are making progress on preventable childhood illness and improvement in our health care system.

Aside all these solutions, we cannot take away the prevalent nature of critical illnesses in Ghana. There has been a lot of awareness and other medical service advocacy on lifestyle and other causes of these unexpected illnesses.

Most Life insurance companies in Ghana are taking active ways to support employers to insure workers against heart attack, cancer, stroke, kidney failure, and coronary artery bypass surgery, paraplegia, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, liver failure, coma, blindness and major organ transplant.

Per indications so far, the insurance market is playing a very good role on the financial market which is contributing largely to our developments. With General Insurers raking in GHC?1.526 billion premium income in the third quarter. This indeed indicates the readiness of the sector to contribute to the better living of Ghanaians. It is my greatest conviction that the life insurance cover for Ghanaian workers will help improve productivity in both Private and Public Sector.

Hollard Insurance, one of the leading insurance company in Ghana which has improved its income from GH?100,454,231 in 2019 to GH?147,639,144 in 2020 promises to support this cover for Ghanaian employers through their sister company Hollard Life Assurance. Employers should take this opportunity to cover their workers against contingencies. The life insurance cover provides a 24 hour death cover (accidental/natural), 24 hour total and permanent disability, partial disability, temporal disability weekly payments benefits. The cover includes medical expenses, lump-sum benefits and free medical screening for employees, taking away the burden from employers when any worker faces health challenges. When these insurance covers are taken into kind consideration, our societies and families would not have to battle with cases of abandoning workers in hard times and I believe we can raise our productivity level in these recovery periods of the pandemic.