Access to quality healthcare continues to be lukewarm in Uganda due to high poverty rates, limited savings, and very low insurance uptake. As a result of this, most Ugandans are always just one medical emergency and hospital admission away from financial ruin and untold disaster.
But this is changeable and one way of doing it is through creating affordable healthcare insurance products. This is the gap that Peleyta seeks to address.
Peleyta Health is a flexible, affordable, and convenient platform helping low-income earners prepare for and afford quality healthcare anywhere at all times through digital healthcare micro-savings and lending.
To get started, you download the Peleyta App or visit their website and register. Only registered members are guaranteed access to Peleyta services within the shortest time possible since their KYC and due diligence in general was earlier done during registration stage.
Registered members instantly have a savings account with Peleyta Health created; an account they keep servicing either daily, weekly, or monthly starting with as low as Shs 500. These savings attract interest at the end of the month. Savers will access their savings to clear their medical fares anytime.
“Healthcare bills should not hurt more than the sickness itself. Insurance penetration in Africa is very low under 2 per cent and in Uganda below 1 per cent. We are helping the uninsured low-income earners to prepare for and afford quality healthcare services anywhere, anytime through our digital healthcare micro-savings and lending platform. We help the uninsured save as little as UGX 500 every day dedicated to healthcare. These funds are used to offset their medical bills anywhere at our registered health facilities. In situations where the medical bills are higher than the wallet savings, we provide a microloan top-up and they are able to settle their medical bills and pay back in installments,” Douglas Smith, the Peleyta Co-Founder and COO, said.
He added: “Ever since we launched, we have had an amazing journey. So far, we have over 3,600 subscribers, and over 380 healthcare facilities we are partnering with. We are currently active in central and western Uganda. Shortly, we intend to scale to eastern Uganda.”
Peleyta has featured on Day 14 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.
Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.
With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.