The move comes as the Facebook-owned tech giant is set to expand its ambit of services to finance, commerce, education and social welfare in 2021.
In the first phase of launch, the instant messaging platform is set to partner with SBI General to launch a sachet-health insurance cover and HDFC Pension to make available National Pension Scheme (NPS) products on its popular app, Abhijit Bose, head of India for WhatsApp, said.
Bose, speaking at Facebook’s Fuel for India 2020 event on Wednesday, said that some of these micro-finance products which the company has been piloting over the last few months could go live within the end of this year.
“The ability for people to get insurance covers – life and health – can protect the financial security of households from unforeseen expenses especially during the pandemic,” said Bose.
“We hope that these projects will make it much easier for micro-pensions and health insurance to be scaled hopefully to every Indian regardless of location and income,” he said, adding that the messaging giant has been collaborating with ecosystem players over the course of the year.
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WhatsApp to focus on four pillars of growth in the country: India head Abhijit Bose
According to PC Kandpal, the CEO of SBI General, the access and reach of WhatsApp can help improve the penetration of health insurance in India, which at less than 4% of the gross domestic product (GDP) is below the world average of 6.31%.
“We want to simplify the distribution channel and make customized, and sachet health insurance products available across India,” Kandpal said. The rollout of this service is expected soon even as the executives cited above did not share a definitive timeline.
WhatsApp, additionally, has also identified four key areas for growth in India – its largest market by customer base – beyond its messaging services that it offers to over 400 million users.
These include growing the WhatsApp Business platform to more users, collaborating with local businesses and governments to offer niche solutions in the field of agriculture, trade and education, expanding its digital payments through WhatsApp Pay, and scaling social welfare projects.
Bose added that the company was
now live on UPI with four banks and 20 million users. These banks, as ET reported earlier, include State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.
The Pay platform, which received approval from the National Payments Corporation of India in November to go live, will form the core for several of its long-term projects which include providing digital and commerce solutions for small businesses.
The service is currently operational only in the peer-to-peer (P2P) mode with access allowed only to 20 million customers. Further expansion of these services would be subject to approvals by NPCI and RBI as well.
“We’re excited and privileged to partner with State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and AXIS Bank to bring simple and secure digital payments to WhatsApp users across India,” said Bose.
“UPI is a transformative service and we jointly have the opportunity to bring the benefits of our digital economy and financial inclusion to a large number of users who have not had full access to them before,” he added.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp Pay is
off to a slow start as per NPCI data, having processed only 0.31 million transactions worth Rs 13 crore in its first month of operation.
