On 8th January 2019, the beeping ECG machine monitoring the heartbeats of Poreh Marrah at the Connaught Hospital went flat. Poreh was declared dead. Poreh was a nurse at the Ola During Children’s Hospital. Aware that death would come knocking one day, eight years before her demise, she subscribed to the Sierra Leone Insurance Company (SLICO) Group Life Insurance Scheme paying Le25,000 monthly for eight years (Le2.4million). Yesterday, 5th August, at the Ola During Children’s Hospital, SLICO paid close to Le10 million to two of her beneficiaries. SLICO claims handler, Naomi, said, “Today, we are here at the Ola During Hospital to pay death benefit to one of our insured members who used to work here. We are paying claims to her niece, Yarie Mansaray, and nephew, Abdul Karim Mansaray, as next of kin.”
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She explained that the amount the beneficiaries were supposed to receive was Le10 million, however they would be receiving Le8,091,500 because the Insuree, Poreh took a loan from the scheme, which she was unable to complete the payment before she passed away. “Out of the loan, she paid Le256,500 in three months. She was supposed to pay a balance of Le1,265,000 over the next nine months.” Naomi added Le1,265,000 was deducted from the Le10 million and the difference Le8,091,500, was apportioned to the beneficiaries, according to the Insuree’s will, which states that 60% (Le5,394,900) should go to her nephew and 40% (Le3,596,600) to her niece. She explained that the payment would have been much earlier but there was a problem with the documentation of the beneficiaries, thus “the need to sign an affidavit to authenticate the documents.” Abdul Karim Mansaray said the claim reminds him of his sister. “I feel so sad. I’ll make sure I’ll take this money to her husband so we can hang head with the family to know what next to do.” The Acting General Manager, Osman Kamara, explained that there are four major benefits under the group life scheme. “The first is if you’ve been with the scheme for two years and over you are entitled to a loan, which is 50% of what you’ve contributed.” The second is disability; the third is retirement and the fourth is death. He explained that this scheme caters to low income earners.
OG/5/8/19
By Ophaniel Gooding
Tuesday August 06, 2019.
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