Celcom unveils takaful scheme

Malaysia Star: Celcom (M) Bhd expects most of its active mobile subscribers to sign on for its newly launched PA Takaful Scheme by 2011, said chief executive officer Datuk Shazalli Ramly.

“We foresee most of our active subscribers will be on the takaful scheme over the next 2½ years,” he said.

Speaking after the launch of PA Takaful Scheme, developed in collaboration with MAA Takaful Bhd, he said this was the first takaful scheme open to all customer segments in Celcom.

At present, Celcom has close to eight million customers. The scheme, which is a 24-hour personal accident protection against accidental death or bodily injury, is exclusively for Celcom customers.

Celcom Blue prepaid customers will enjoy free RM20,000 benefit for the first year.

A contribution of RM12 would be chargeable from the second year onwards. Xpax customers will be charged for the service from the first day of activation, which is RM1 per month.

“This partnership with MAA Takaful clearly demonstrates that Celcom is going beyond providing just traditional mobile services.

“We are now expanding our range of offerings to include lifestyle-related services that give more value for our customers, enhanced by convenience of subscription via SMS,” he said.

MAA Takaful chief executive officer Salim Majid Zain said the 75% subsidiary of MAA Holdings Bhd targeted about RM2mil-RM3mil contribution from the product in the first year of launch.

On whether MAA had plans to bring in foreign partners, chief executive officer Umar Swift said: “Perhaps, (but) that’s quite not the topic for the day. We are a local brand. There has been a lot of speculation in the press but it is not appropriate to comment about it at this point of time.”