MILVIK (Cambodia) Micro Insurance Plc, a mobile-based firm which offers health and insurance products to customers in Cambodia, has teamed up with mobile payment app Pi Pay to enhance convenience for its clients.

During the Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony on Friday, Kim Tol Am, CEO of the firm – which operates under the brand name Bima – said Cambodia’s insurance premiums ratio to gross domestic product is still low.

Stunted growth in the insurance sector may stem from factors such as limited awareness and low incomes, he said, which discourage people from buying insurance.

“The purpose of Bima is to protect the future of all families. We want to provide all people with as much convenience as possible so they can use more of our products,” she said.

The insurance sector is part of the banking sector, so if the sector performs well, people will be less concerned when they have an accident, she said.

Through collaboration, Tol Am hopes to attract more Cambodians to life insurance because applying for policies is simple, fast and affordable.

Pi Pay CEO Tomas Pokorny said as a mobile payment company, he is focusing on improving services and simplifying user interfaces to make payments easier.

He said the MoU would enable the widespread use of insurance services in Cambodia. “The collaboration will make it easy for people to pay monthly premiums through a non-cash mobile app.”

With a five-year presence in Cambodia, Bima currently has about 500,000 clients using its services.

The Kingdom’s insurance industry generated more than $190 million in gross premiums last year – an increase driven by life insurance of nearly 30 per cent over the previous year, according to the Insurance Association of Cambodia.