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Liberty Holdings launches premium International Health Insurance product in Nigeria

Liberty Holdings today launched a Premium International Health Insurance Product, Optimum Global, in Nigeria through a strategic partnership and part-ownership of the country's leading health insurance company Total Health Trust Ltd (THT). Optimum Global is an international evacuation product underwritten by Aviva and Liberty Health has an exclusive arrangement to distribute and manage this offering in Sub Saharan Africa.

The product is a result of a strategic partnership between Liberty Health and Optimum Global tht will see a systematic rollout of the product to 17 African countries over the next five years. During 2009, the product will also be launched in Kenya, Mozambique, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Liberty Health CEO, Peter Botha, commented:
"The vision for Liberty Health is to be a Pan African Health business, providing technology health solutions in growing markets. The launch of Optimum Global strengthens this growth product. We are especially pleased to be working with Optimum Global and are confident that the combination of Optimum Global's top-of-the-range health schemes, Liberty Health's world class administrative capabilities, and Standard Bank's Africa-wide footprint puts us at a distinct strategic advantage in Africa."

Total Health Trust's CEO, Ladi Awosika, commented:
"THT has been at the forefront of health insurance in Nigeria for over a decade now. Our partnership with Liberty enables us to draw on our local capabilities and roll out a world class health insurance product in the Nigerian market. The launch of Optimum Global will be a significant development in the Nigerian health insurance industry and we look forward to delivering exceptional value to customers."

Optimum Global consists of three benefit options: Essential, Comprehensive and Supreme which offer benefit limits of between US$ 1 million and US$ 2.5 million to individual, family and corporate members, allowing members the flexibility to choose benefit levels that best suit them.

Besides being better priced than other international health insurance products on offer across Africa, Optimum Global offers an incomparable range of services including:

• First class medical treatment wherever members are;
• Evacuation to nearest centre of medical excellence if suitable facilities are not locally available;
• 24 hours helpline manned by multilingual staff;
• Cover for alternative medicine hoemopathy, chiropractic and acupuncture;
• Full coverage for chroni illnesses;
• Payments directly to medical service providers;
• Local presence and good understanding of the local market;
• Freedom to choose medical service providers.

Optimum Global aims to achieve 60 000 lives over the next five years. The product will be managed through Liberty Health's World Class Technology-Enabled administrative capabilities.