SOSO Care is a social enterprise for low-cost micro health insurance, which uses recyclable garbage as a financial resource enabling millions of uninsured slum dwellers, mostly women and children, to access micro health insurance and gain points on food stamps.

With pervasive poverty, poor healthcare financing and high maternal mortality (54,000 yearly) and less than 3% of Nigeria’s 200 million population having health insurance, healthcare access thus presents a significant economic burden on slums and suburb residents mostly women with unstable little income and for poor pregnant women is considered as expensive luxury. Additionally, every year Nigeria dumps over 34 million tons of waste. The Lagos state alone with a population of over 30 million is estimated to produce about 14,000 metric tons of waste daily which is equivalent to about 490 trailer load of solid waste daily and about 30 billion PET bottles causing poor sanitation, poor healthcare and affecting the environment since less than 5% is collected and recycled.

SOSO CARE as an insurtech social enterprise aims to use recyclable garbage as a financial resource enabling millions of uninsured slum dwellers mostly pregnant women and kids to access micro health insurance . By linking garbage to healthcare access, SOSO Care aims to target over 40% of the 200 million people in Nigeria that are living below the poverty line in Nigeria, predominantly in urban slums and suburbs. 

Currently, SOSO Care is the cheapest micro health insurance in Nigeria with premium costing less than a dollar for everyone. Furthermore, it is also the only insurance that aims to use recyclable garbage to finance healthcare for millions by converting waste received by individuals into payments to finance their insurance premium.

SOSO Care uses B2B and commissions by partnering with Hygeia HMO to underwrite the insurance risk. Members can access care by delivering recyclable materials like bottles, glass, plastics bag equivalent to $1 monthly at our drop-off locations, which our partner agents sell to large recycling companies as raw materials. The money generated from the sales is converted into a health fund to finance the $1 premium in other to access healthcare.

By linking garbage to healthcare access, micro capital and food stamps, SOSO Care is achieving progress on both areas with their solution by:

• Providing access to basic and inclusive healthcare to reduce infant and maternal mortality
• Improving sanitation & environment in slums and reducing plastic waste
• Creating Jobs for the distribution network and waste collectors
• Providing access to micro capital
• Providing access to food stamps

SOSO Care has been tested in over 4 states, cities and countries including Pakistan and Indonesia and is looking to raise financing funding as their next step to increase their outreach to bigger cities and states like Lagos, with over 25 million inhabitants and over 30% of the population living in slums and suburbs with limited access to low cost health insurance.