If you would like to suggest an amendment or addition to this list, please contact Sabbir Patel.

Prime Islami Life Insurance Ltd. (Bangladesh)

Prime Islami Life Insurance Ltd. (PILIL) has launched several micro takaful products for the poor people of Bangladesh since 2001. By 2008 they provided three individual and one group micro takaful products to cover the financial risks of the mass people and to build small amount of capital for them at maturity:
A) Monthly Small-Savings Assurance Plan (MSAP)
B) Prime Islami Deposit Pension Scheme (PIDPS)
C) Kalyan-Bima - Two payments deposit pension scheme (K.B.)
D) Samajik Nirapatya Bima (Premium Back Group Assurance Plan) (S.N.B.)

These products are suitable for low- income group i.e. agricultural and factory workers, small traders, house-wives and self- employed people, who are unable to pay large amounts of premium once/ twice in a year, but can easily contribute as low as USD 2 per month. The Contribution (premium) is charged at flat rate and the policyholder contributes according to his/her ability.

Then a few years later PILIL launched a new group microtakaful product, Karmajibi Kalyan Bima, to complement the other takaful products offered.

Karmajibi Kalyan Bima is a completely new group term insurance product in the Bangladesh market. It provides several additional benefits without any extra premiums being required.

The product's target group are factory workers and employees, office staff, members of trade unions and associations, and members of co-operative societies. The product is also available for Bangladeshi workers who are engaged in hazardous & non- hazardous occupations abroad.

The premium rates for Karmajibi Kalyan Bima range from USD 6.8 to USD 14.5 for a term of one year and from USD 17.3 to USD 40.8 for a term of three years for BDT 100,000 Sum Assured.

PT Asuransi Allianz (Indonesia)

In 2006 Allianz introduced a microinsurance version of their Takaful policies in the country. Through their credit life programme "Payung Keluarga" (meaning "Family Umbrella") introduced in 2008, Allianz has insured over 422,000 micro-credits, covering debtors of 58 partners (MFIs, cooperatives, NGOs) against natural and accidental death for an average premium of USD 0.66. It also provides extra payout to the family.

Several MFI partners who finance these businesses have requested such joint-life coverage because many microbusinesses in Indonesia are jointly run by spouses. Moreover, the MFI can adapt the amount of extra payouts to the needs of their customers. While very poor customers with microcredits under USD100 may require high extra payouts, better-off customers may be better served with lower or no extra payouts whereby they save the premium for protection they already obtain from other sources.

To keep premiums low, Payung Keluarga is a compulsory product. To reduce complexity, the MFI centrally decides on the product benefits on behalf of their customers. However, the customers receive detailed product explanations from the loan officers of the MFI.

Another Microinsurance plan offered by Allianz is the "Tamadera" group scheme, a 5-year endowment plan that combines savings and insurance protection and is aimed at members of microfinance institutions, blue collar workforce, associations, foundations and NGOs. It covers critical illnesses and offers various additional benefits such as maturity benefits, flexibility and no medical check-up necessary.

The two specific Microtakaful products are:

1. "Payung Keluarga Sharia", which contributed 103.000 new members during the period of January- June 2012 and of which they currently maintain 168.000 inforced policies.

2. "AlliSya Credit Life". It is a single premium product which covers debtors of Gadai Emas (Pawn Gold) from one of their bank partners with a 4-month coverage, in line with the tenure of the loan itself. The profile of the customers is a little bit higher that Payung Keluarga Sharia. The average of loan taken is USD 560 and the average premium paid is less than USD 0.25 for 4 months. Up to 15.000 debtors were covered in 2012 but due to the decision of the bank to shutdown this business line in 2012, numbers have decreased.

This product is a guaranteed acceptance product, requires no medical check up and for the claim process, a declaration letter from local authority and reference from the bank must be presented.

Takmin (Indonesia)

Takmin Working Group (Takmin WG) was formed in 2005 by NGO Peramu Foundation and subsequently partnered with Asuransi Takaful Keluarga (ATK) in developing microinsurance in Indonesia. ATK manages the Takaful fund, and each moth it collects IDR 14 million (USD 1,500) in contributions compared to just USD 346 when it first started in 2007. As an agen of ATK, it receives a 25% commission which it redistributes back to the business by way of operatring and infrastructure costs.

At the end of 2005 they launched the Takaful Mikro Sakinah (TMS) credit life scheme, with the purpose of settling the debt of participants' cause of death. By 2010 there were 44 MFIs registered covering 11,500. Their roll out activity covers socialization and introduction of TMS in general as well as conducting TMS administration training. There were 20 MFIs that had joined this program up to June 2008 with total of 6.168 TMS members. In that year TAKMIN performed roll out to 10 districts around Java and one in Sumatera.

The growing development of microinsurance and microtakaful in Indonesia has encouraged the Institute of Risk Management and Insurance (STIMRA) to conduct a workshop in May 2010 at which Agus Hayardi, CEO of Takmin was invited to present their experiences and challenges for the future.

One of the achievements thus far has been the setting up of an e-learning platform to educate potential partners on the concept of microinsurance. In this way, TAKMIN is able to reach a wider section of Islamic microfinance institutions which has more than 3,000 in Indonesia.

TAKMIN stands for Micro Takaful Indonesia, constructed to implement the sharia-based micro-insurance program keagenan (partner agent model). Today (2012) TAKMIN has 15,000 participants across 13 cities spanning three provinces in Indonesia.

Asuransi Takaful Keluarga (Life Insurance) (Indonesia)

PT Asuransi Takaful Keluarga has collaborated with the National Alm Board (Baznas) to develop a microtakaful scheme for alms receivers. The covers cost 50,000 rupiah (USD 5) and consist of reciprocal assistance funds managed by Takaful Kelurga and donation funds managed by Baznas. The policies have a 5 million rupiah coverage for death resulting from natural causes and 25 million rupiah for those caused by accidents. Claims are processed within 14 days and the payout is distributed by Baznas to the deceased's heirs.
In late 2006, PT Asuransi Takaful Keluarga (ATK), Takmin Working Group and Shariah microf inance institutions (LKMS) collaborated under the partner-agent model to launch Takaful Micro Sakinah, a Shariah-compliant credit insurance programme for micro businesses and poor families in Bogor.

Claiming to be "different from most credit life insurance", Takaful Micro Sakinah was designed mainly to free the partners or clients of LKMS from debt in the event of death. Under the partner-agent model, LKMS represents their partners/clients or policyholders, ATK is the insurance provider and Takmin Working Group functions as the mediator or agency between LKMS and ATK.

Takaful Insurance of Africa (Kenya)

At TIA, Micro-Takaful refers to insurance systems that offer products designed for the low budget needs. The main characteristics of the TIA Micro - Takaful product include:

• Simple product design, frequently required, affordable premium payments and uniform benefit offering.
• Based on principles of solidarity, common ownership and common management.
• Designed to provide access to protection against risky events that affect the health and economic well-being of members of society.

In the Takaful principle of pooling resources and safeguarding each other through shared risks and profits, the TIA micro products are designed as an instrument for partnership towards prosperity.

Takaful is engaging in research and development to enhance the agricultural and livestock micro takaful schemes. This is mainly geared towards providing risk management and sufficient protection to farmers and pastrolists in Northern Kenya in the first phase. To enhance the impact of the products, TIA is engaging government and non-governmental organzations in developing index based and community centered products.

Other than the Livestock and agricultural products, Takaful is also setting up micro health products for small scale traders in other remote areas to support and alleviate the costs involved with the rising need for medical care.

Warba Insurance (Kuwait)

Warba Insurance Co is offering a Micro Insurance Policy, namely "LOK Sureksha" aimed at individuals who cannot afford standard life term policies but require protection in its most basic forms. This product covers death and disability and provides compensation in case of death and in the case of death due to accident. It also covers seven kinds of disability and expenses for transferring the remains of the dead to his home country.

Etiqa Takaful Berhad (Malaysia)

Etiqa is a distributor of Insurance & Takaful products via its 23,000 agency force, 30 branches, 450 Maybank branches, ATMs & third-party banks.

At the core of the Etiqa brand is the essence of humanizing Insurance and Takaful. In an industry where agreements are typified by triplicate and fine print, Etiqa seeks to humanize the process by breaking down boundaries through clarity, strength and good conscience. With rock solid foundation, Etiqa is able to provide a unique ability to work hand-in-hand with customers enabling them to live richer lives.

Bank Rakyat (Malaysia)

Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Berhad (Bank Rakyat), in collaboration with Etiqa Takaful Berhad has launched the Family Takaful products Takaful Murni, Takaful Didik and Takaful Amanah.

Like other Takaful products previously offered by the Bank, each of the three Family Takaful products offers a combination of protection and savings to meet the needs of people and is affordable with a contribution as low as MYR 50 (USD 16) per month.

Takaful Murni is an individual plan that provides financial benefits to participants and members of their families in the event of an unforeseen mishap. Takaful Didik is aimed at protecting the future of their children's education, while Takaful Amanah is dedicated to provide a comprehensive protection for their families.

Amana Takaful (Sri Lanka)

Amana Takaful Insurance, the first Takaful provider in the country, has added microtakaful products to its portfolio, in collaboration with NGOs and MFIs. Amana Takaful is working with Muslim Aid Sri Lanka in implementing Islamic microinsurance programmes in Sri Lanka, which are designed to uplift and spur entrepreneurship amongst the poor. Insurance provision is being coupled with credit services that are offered by Muslim Aid to the people in villages. As it was a first time experience of implementing a microinsurance programme, Amana and Muslim Aid together developed a standardised product to fulfil the requirements of people. The product covers the credit life of the client, hospitalization and medical charges in the event of hospitalization of both client and family members.

A Financial Literacy Training programme has also been introduced for members. One of the main components of the training programme has focused on the importance of insurance. The training is conducted in an interactive way coupled with pictures and other visual material.

A further innovation has been to use 5-10 minutes of the monthly Centre meetings to discuss insurance. Members who have received claims are given time to share their experience with fellow members. The support of the village leaders is very important to spread the message across the community effectively and efficiently.

In a different approach, Amana engaged various garment manufacturing companies to promote microtakaful to factory workers who fall into the lower income bracket. The Navodaya (dawn of a new era) policy, is a unique cover aimed at providing both a death and disabilities cover at a cost of Rs.1.00 a day, targeted at factory blue collar workers, tea estates, apparel sector, labourers and other self-employed workers.

Amana has associated with MAS Holdings, the largest supplier of intimate apparels in the region and partnered with renowned brands of intimates, sportswear and leisurewear. Amana's pioneering Micro Insurance Navodaya was proposed to MAS as a CSR initiative of giving back to society.

"Navodaya" is essentially for the skilled workers, whose earnings per month are comparatively low. Navodaya also provides covers for death due to natural and accidental causes, disability arising due to accidents, marriage, hospitalization and funeral grants to its members. As majority of the MAS workers are women who come from very poor villages and are invariably the breadwinners of the family, Navodaya is a life saver for these women as it helps them to face an emergency; as they will not be able to depend on their company to help them at a time of urgency. If not for Navodaya they will borrow money for interest at such times of need. Navodaya becomes a life line to these workers to get back to their normal life.

Navodaya is a beneficial policy as it takes care of the workers during happier times and during grief, as it caters to the unmarried & their parents, and married employees & their spouse and children. They are given cash grant on the event of death (natural and accident), funeral expenses, partial and permanent disability, marriage and hospitalization for a very low premium as LKR 365 (USD 3.38) per annum. Under the "Navodaya" product, covers include:

• Death covers due to accidental or natural causes;
• Hospitalisation cover;
• Marriage and child birth covers.

Shiekan Insurance Co. Ltd. (Sudan)

Shiekan Insurance and Reinsurance Company, as a multi-lines insurer provides a package of covers: Material Damage (Livestock, fire & burglary, Motor, Agricultural), Credit Insurance and Family Takaful. They carried out a Microinsurance pilot project from 2008 to 2011 with participants such as the savings and development bank, the farmer commercial bank, the Sudanese agricultural bank, the Islamic Cooperative development bank and the industrial development bank and 1759 beneficiaries in 2011.

They have also worked on a project to connect farmers to markets projects since 2011, the key objectives are to enable small-scale farmers to get out of the cycle of under production and poverty and become self-sufficient and produce a surplus. This project has been carried out in partnership with the Microfinance Unit of the Central Bank of Sudan, the United Nations World Food Programme and the United Nations Development Programme. The services provided are Microfinance, Microinsurance, Agriculture extension and Agriculture crops markets. The Bank of Khartoum, the Family Bank and the Savings and Social Development Bank are amongst the participants, benefiting over 66,000 farmers.

Shiekan in cooperation with the Sudan Central Bank have signed a microfinance operations insurance document with several commercial banks. The document represents a real and reliable guarantee which will participate in making microfinance programme a success by achieving the aspirations in economical development and eradicating poverty according to the government trends and policies.

Sudan is believed to be the most developed micro-insurance and micro-takaful insurance market in Africa, and as such serves as a model for other countries across the continent.

Takaful Emarat (UAE)

Takaful Emarat is a premier Shariah Compliant Life & Health Insurance Company established to provide Takaful insurance in the Middle East with the insight of worldwide expansion as an international leader in Takaful.

Takaful Emarat's Islamic insurance ( Takaful) ‘Sehat Plan' has especially been created for lower income workers in the UAE with premium as low as AED 510 (USD 139). The plan is available only to manual workers and is not available to office workers even at low income.

The plan covers risks of injury and illness and protects the workers if certain unforeseen circumstances occur. The plan is bundled with life and disability benefits and is designed for the lower income work force in the UAE.