As we approach the end of year, we’re celebrating a big 2011 full of growth for MicroEnsure, Opportunity International‘s microinsurance subsidiary. Here are a few highlights from the year in review…

• During 2011, MicroEnsure grew ten-fold in Africa to cover more than one million people in Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania. Within two years, the company expects to serve more than five million people in Africa, the vast majority of whom have never had access to insurance.
• In the past year, MicroEnsure has nearly doubled the number of people it covers in Ghana by partnering with a telecommunications company Tigo, which uses the product to reward loyal customers with free insurance.
• In Tanzania and Kenya, MicroEnsure is testing health insurance for coffee-growing farmers in the Kilimanjaro area. It provides in-patient and out-patient care to farmers and their families by using local private health clinics.

Insurance helps clients like James (pictured), who successfully grew his electronics business only to lose everything to devastating floods, avoid sliding back into poverty when disaster strikes. James took out a loan from Opportunity Ghana that included life insurance for him and his family, disability insurance, and property insurance to cover his business against catastrophic loss. Within days of filing his claim, James received a payout for the value of his business so that he could clean up, re-stock and get back to supporting his family. MicroEnsure helps clients like James maintain the foothold out of poverty they have worked so hard to achieve.

For more news on MicroEnsure’s growth, visit microensure.com»