Unique Insurance Company Limited has, in partnership with the Afro Asian Assistance, launched the first online travel insurance policy in Ghana for air travellers.
Afro Asian Assistance is a fully-owned subsidiary of Trust Re – one of the world’s leading reinsurance companies – from Bahrain.
The policy, which covers travellers no matter which part of the world they might be travelling to, is designed to cover risks derived from emergency, accidents and/or sudden illnesses with trip inconvenience and personal liability.
Launching the policy, Minster of Aviation Cecilia Abena Dapaah said it has come at an opportune time to reduce the strain travellers go through after booking flights, in looking for an insurance company to insure them.
“The launch of this product on the Ghanaian market has come at the right time to save air travellers a lot of time. This will impact positively on the aviation industry as travellers will fill-in their insurance policy forms side by side as they book their flights. I think we, as a people, must patronise the Unique Travel Policy due to its flexibility and huge benefits.
“The product we are launching today can be simply purchased at every travel agency at the same time a traveller purchases his/her ticket. Being an online and cloud-based product, it allows real-time transmission of the details of every purchaser to the international travel assistance partners. Therefore, a Ghanaian traveller is guaranteed prompt assistance on insured events outside Ghana with Unique Insurance on the Unique Travel Policy,” she added.
Today, in Ghana the first requirement for the acquisition of Shengen visa is whether the visa applicant has taken out a travel insurance policy, as it does not really matter whether the traveller is already on the national health insurance scheme.
This demand from the European Union suddenly switched many insurance companies in Ghana into quick travel insurance packaging.
Insurance is an important- and in some cases also obligatory – aspect of a tourist’s travel arrangements, embracing coverage for all manner of contingencies.
Normally, travel insurance covers one or more of the following contingencies: Medical care and hospitalisation (and repatriation where the hospital is substandard); Personal accident; cancellation or curtailment of holiday; delayed departure; baggage loss or delay; money loss and personal liability, among others.
But this online travel insurance policy covers emergency, accidents and/or sudden illnesses with trip inconvenience and personal liability, and even allows for a relative of the policyholder to visit in order to take care of the victim.
All this has been made possible by the Afro Asian Assistance. Trust International Insurance and Reinsurance Company B.S.C. (c) ‘Trust Re’ is a closed joint stock company registered in the Kingdom of Bahrain with an authorised capital of US$500million.
It is regulated by the central bank of Bahrain as a locally incorporated reinsurance firm.
The Minster of Aviation, Mrs. Dapaah, in her closing remarks stated that the high benefit levels of the policy, which complies with the requirements of Schengen States and other countries and regions for visa acquisition, is a commendable development within the aviation and insurance industries in Ghana.
On his part, the Managing Director of Unique Insurance Company Limited, Mr. Victor Obeng-Adiyiah, called on the Aviation Ministry to introduce measures and incentives aimed at promoting the purchase of travel insurance for every Ghanaian travelling abroad.
This, he said, will reduce the incidence of distress to Ghanaian travellers and their families when they are away from the shores of Ghana.
