Smart Axiata’s mHealth partner BIMA wins GSMA GLOMO ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Health & Biotech’ Award
BIMA, Smart Axiata’s partner for delivering mobile-based health and insurance products to customers in Cambodia, scooped the ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Health & Biotech’ Award at the prestigious GSMA Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO Awards) in Barcelona in February 2019. The awards ceremony recognises and celebrates the very best innovations that help evolve as well as develop the mobile industry.
In Cambodia, Smart and BIMA launched their partnership in 2014 to offer customers access to simple and affordable mobile-based insurance products. Together, they offer consumers Smart Life and Smart Health Insurance and in 2018, mHealth was launched as a loyalty programme for Smart Insurance subscribers. mHealth offers customers unlimited access to quality doctors over the phone as well as free medication delivery in Phnom Penh along with their doctor’s prescriptions by SMS.
Besides being available in Cambodia, mHealth from BIMA is also offered in Bangladesh, Ghana, Pakistan and Paraguay and has reached over 2.2 million customers by now.
“At BIMA it is incredibly motivating for us to be recognized as a leader in the mobile healthcare industry. We are focused on providing the best possible mobile-based health services to people who need it most,” said Tapas Kuila, Country Manager for BIMA Cambodia.
“In emerging markets like Cambodia, it is common to have to travel long distances and to sacrifice long hours waiting in a clinic before seeing a doctor. For those who work outside of the professional sector, the hours lost also have an impact on their income. These factors often prevent people from seeking medical help when they need it,” added Tapas.
Following this award, BIMA aims to further strengthen its end-to-end solutions that addresses inequalities and grow mHealth by offering this service to all BIMA customers across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
“Many Cambodians do not have insurance because they lack knowledge and are unable to gain access to credible insurance products. However, through our partnership with BIMA, both companies can offer a unique agent distribution model leading to BIMA being able to reach out to hundreds of thousand customers. Congratulations to BIMA for this award which will motivate us even more to improve accessibility and affordability of mobile-based insurance products,” said Thomas Hundt, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Axiata.
The GLOMO Awards are judged by independent experts, analysts, journalists, academics and, in some cases, mobile operator representatives.