The Micro Insurance Agency becomes MicroEnsure

Micro Insurance Matters, December 15th, 2008

Opportunity International started to investigate the possibility of developing microinsurance products in 2002. This special project experienced such rapid growth that the Micro Insurance Agency was established as a separate entity within the Opportunity International Network in 2005. The $24.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, enabled further expansion into new countries and new products such as health and crop insurance.

As we grew to become a leader in microinsurance, we began to ask whether our existing name was best suited to our work, our markets, and our aspirations to serve the poor throughout the developing world. So we conducted professional research into our stakeholders’ perception of Micro Insurance Agency, and how a name and tagline impacts on our business and mission. The results strongly suggested that a new identity would prove beneficial to our future growth. Accordingly, we have invested considerable effort into developing a new name that will better reflect and maintain our leading position in the market. We sought a name that is less generic but still connects us the ‘micro’ insurance market. A name that projects our core values, and adds value in terms of our goal, vision, compassion, safety, and trust. We believe we now have a name that is brief and clear.

With our new tagline, we aim to suggest the key concepts of safety, stability, opportunity, and uplift. Ultimately, our name and tagline must reflect our goal to help lift the poor out of poverty. From here on, the Micro Insurance Agency becomes MicroEnsure. And our tagline is “Helping the poor weather life’s storms.”

Published in Micro Insurance Matters on December 15th, 2008