A South African health insurance firm has entered the Kenyan market with much enthusiasm yet the East African market has proved to be very harsh for many South African companies since the early 1990s.
Vitality Health International entered the Kenyan market on March 1, promising industry-leading health and innovative health packages which focus on well-being, aimed at positively impacting people’s health outcomes while improving and protecting their lives.
In partnership with APA Insurance, Vitality Health International offers health insurance with a strong emphasis on preventive health through exercise and travel treatment that covers clients when they travel to Africa and worldwide.
The company focuses on preventive health through early screening and exercises are given that 15 percent of the Kenyan population is physically inactive.
Clients can also earn points by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and operating a Vitality Fund that allows individuals to increase their insurance limits depending on their health status.
Apart from South Africa, Vitality Health International—which was launched in launch in January 2022—operates in Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Zambia, and Mozambique.
Vitality Health International is owned by multi-award-winning South African insurer, Discovery, which pioneered the Vitality Shared-value Insurance model in South Africa, changing the insurance landscape with a health insurance model that rewards people for healthy living, and building successful partnerships globally with leading insurers.
Today, Discovery has a global presence, operating in 40 markets, and impacting the lives of more than 30 million people worldwide. In Kenya, Vitality is targeting employees in the corporate sector.
The company is entering the Kenyan market which for the last two decades proved very difficult for South African companies, but Vitality is bullish that they will make a mark given that Kenya has a rapidly growing milled class while health insurance penetration is only 3 percent.
According to Emma Knox, CEO of Vitality Health International, the foundation of the Vitality Shared-value model is to reward people for healthier behaviours, which improves their physical and mental well-being, improves productivity and decreases the employer’s insurance or health risk.
“Through this model Vitality Health International is contributing towards a healthier society by making businesses and their employees healthier,” she said.
The shared-value approach enables employees, employers, and Vitality Health International to share in the value and benefits of healthy behaviour by lowering healthcare costs for employers and employees while decreasing the claims risks for Vitality Health International.
Employers are rewarded with a cashback of up to 10 percent for encouraging their employees to get healthy and the Vitality Health Fund which can be unlocked when members complete their Vitality Health Review extends the employees’ outpatient benefits by up to $100, based on completion of Vitality health assessments and positive engagement with the Vitality programme.
Similarly, employees can earn exciting weekly rewards with Vitality Health International’s exciting range of rewards partners, including Safaricom, Jumia, Uber, Uber Eats, and Garmin, where vouchers can be redeemed for achieving their goals, or employees can choose to donate towards a life-changing vaccine.
Ashok Shah, CEO of APA Insurance said that “Since our inception in 1977, APA’s mission has been to provide present and future peace of mind to the East African market and, in turn, enhance the quality of life for both its clients and their loved ones. Working in partnership with Vitality Health International, we believe, will fast-track achieving our collective vision.”
According to Ms Knox, a number of studies have found that Vitality has had a very significant impact on mortality rates in South Africa. “Members who are on Gold and Diamond status with Vitality are estimated to have reduced mortality risk as a result of healthier lifestyles, increasing their life expectancy to 87 compared to 67 for the insured population in South Africa,” she said.
Kenya, compared to the rest of the world, also has a young population with the dominant working-class generation, with 44 percent of them being millennials.
Vitality is taking advantage of the steady growth in Kenya’s middle-class population, which is an indicator of increasing affordability for health insurance and a growing demand for quality healthcare.
They are exercising more, eating smarter, and smoking less than previous generations. They are using apps to track training data and online information to find the healthiest foods – a market ready for innovation and disruption.
According to Vitality, Africa is going through a disease profile shift Lifestyles diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, are emerging as the main cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This shift is caused by increased urbanisation, lack of physical activity, poor levels of disease screening, and late-stage disease diagnosis. “Added to this there is an estimated 100 million people in Africa suffering from clinical depression.
