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In a move that could be either totally genius or a face-first flop, Kenya’s fourth-popular telco, Equitel has launched a new bundle that encompasses talk-time minutes and an insurance cover.
Equitel, in its press statement, admits that the new offering is meant to attract more subscribers. The telco currently has 1.8 million subscribers, which represents 3.6% of the entire market in Kenya.
Anyway, before we get carried away, let’s dissect Equitel’s new offering. The bundle comes in two packages, one that costs Kes.1249 and another that costs Kes.2499.
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Both include the Riziki insurance cover, which is a mobile-based insurance product that covers daily earnings through a daily compensation program to customers who get hospitalized for three days or more.
The insured is entitled to a payment of up to Kes.2500, for each day they are hospitalized while under the cover.
The rest of the bundle includes:
For KES 1,249 – Equitel customers get 500 minutes to any network and a Riziki cover for one person.
For KES 2,499 – Equitel customers get 1000 minutes to any network and a full family cover under Riziki insurance where any family member is entitled to the daily compensation.
Is it enticing enough?
The battle to gain some ground against the giant Safaricom in Kenya is what has pushed Equitel to get creative with such solutions.
While the bundle may not be enticing enough to everyone, especially those formally employed, those in the informal sector, as well as those who are self-employed, may find the offer attractive enough to go with it.
It would have been nice to see Equitel add SMS and data to the bundle, especially considering SMS is the telcos biggest earner. But as statistics show, mobile data is not really something Equitel customers engage in that much. Actually, a good number of Equitel subscribers use the service for its mobile money offering.
Do you have an Equitel SIM card? What do you use it for?
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