Turaco appoints Toba Obaniyi as General Manager in Nigeria

Turaco (registered in Nigeria as Turaco Inclusive Limited), Africa’s leading insurtech, has today announced the appointment of Toba Obaniyi as its General Manager in Nigeria.

He has taken charge of driving business growth and acquiring strategic partnerships. He will lead business growth through strategic partnerships to distribute Turaco’s embedded insurance solution. Toba Obaniyi's arrival heralds an exciting chapter for the insurtech as it rapidly scales its Nigerian operations.

Toba brings to the role deep expertise with over 10 years of experience in enterprise sales of tech solutions. He has earned widespread recognition as the driving force behind WhoGoHost, Nigeria’s prominent cloud solutions provider.

As pioneering CEO, Toba steered the company through a remarkable transformation, propelling it from a one-man operation to the largest web-hosting company in West Africa. 

"We are thrilled to welcome Toba Obaniyi to Turaco," said Ted Pantone, Co-founder & CEO of Turaco. "With 80% of Nigeria still uninsured, but high levels of fintech penetration, Nigeria provides an ideal opportunity for Turaco’s B2B2C, tech-enabled model. In the first year of our Nigeria operations, we saw a high demand for insurtech solutions from both distribution partners and customers. Toba's leadership and expertise in the region will enable us to meet that demand through additional distribution partnerships and scale our Nigerian sales, ultimately enabling us to insure more lives."

Speaking on his new appointment Mr. Obaniyi said: "I am honoured by this opportunity to lead Turaco in Nigeria and contribute towards achieving the company’s ambitious vision of insuring the next 1 billion lives. Turaco has already established itself as the frontrunner in the insurtech space across Africa, and I look forward to building on this strong foundation to establish additional partnerships in Nigeria with other leading tech-enabled companies. Working closely with our Nigerian team and partners, we will deliver the Turaco approach of using innovation and customer-centricity to disrupt the insurance industry and provide this vital risk-mitigating tool to millions of families across the country.”

Turaco is a distributor and key customer interface between the underwriter and the end consumer and has insured over 1,500,000 lives across Africa. Targeted at underserved customers and low-income earners, Turaco forms partnerships with top tech-enabled companies with a large pool of customers or staff in emerging markets, including some of the continent’s most trusted brands such as Paga, Payforce, MAX, and M-KOPA.

Turaco embeds its service as a white-labeled offering that is bundled with a partner’s core product or service while integrating with their existing payment processes to collect premiums. 

With a robust API integration that allows for easy collaboration with its external partners, Turaco enables companies to integrate insurance into their products and services efficiently and at no additional risk or cost.

Turaco products are priced at ~$1/month, with straightforward terms & conditions and a fully digitized claims process that allows claimants to file via WhatsApp or phone call, paying out in less than three days via mobile money. 

Passionate about digital solutions, Mr. Obaniyi was appointed as the Vice President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) Executive Board in 2019 and served as the acting chair of the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Group (NIGF-MAG). Toba is an invaluable asset in Nigeria's digital landscape as he advocates for internet accessibility for underserved areas in Nigeria.

Turaco is a Pan-African insurtech driving financial resilience in emerging markets with simple and affordable health and life insurance for the underserved mass market. 

Founded in 2019, Turaco is present in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana. Turaco partners with leading mobile network operators (MNOs), technology-enabled companies, and financial institutions to embed and distribute insurance products to their customers.

With Turaco, individuals can secure insurance coverage with premiums starting as low as $1 per month. Turaco processes claims in less than three business days, ensuring customers receive their money when they need it the most. With a vision to insure 1 billion lives, Turaco has insured more than 1.5 million lives and has facilitated the payment of more than 20,000 claims to date.