The death of a loved one is a difficult emotion to process. The certainty that we must go through it at some point in our lives hurts even more. So, when Yeside’s father died in 2021, she prayed earnestly that God should reverse course and not “do this” to her, “at least not now”.
If one had the power to choose, death would never be chosen by any of us. Thus, the mystery of time and place will forever continue.
But the tears and helplessness are not the only thing the living left to mourn must deal with, Yeside, like many others, must bear the cost of a funeral for her late father. Sadly, no one is ever ready for the cost of burying a loved one.
You never understand why burying your dead demands a lot from your coffers, and some persons borrow in the hope they can recover after the funeral ceremony with support from friends and kin. Most never recover and have to leave through months, and sometimes years, of debt.
How expensive can a funeral be?
It costs about Eighty Thousand Naira (N80,000) for the ambulance service that drives the remains of a loved one from Lagos to Ekiti State, and up to Forty-five Thousand Naira (N45,000) for embalment and 2,000 Naira daily to keep their loved ones at the mortuary while they prepare to bury him.
Funerals cost a lot in Nigeria like most celebrations – weddings, birthdays, and naming ceremonies. Although, unlike these celebrations, death is final. It is that finality of it all that hurts the most, yet we must celebrate our loved ones, or at least give them a proper burial. For our dead are not devoid of souls. Like us, our dead walked the paths we now strut, and for that reason, we must honour them and their memory with the funeral service being the first.
Other costs, Yeside and her younger siblings must cover during a funeral include
- Asoebi (or family attire) which must be adorned by guests and friends of the family.
- Casket for the remains of the dead
- Halls for guests (Canopies in the case that the guest will be hosted in an open field)
- Food & Drinks (Here is where most of the funds go)
While the Asoebi is a source of revenue to cover some of the cost of the funeral, the return is almost always disputed. For example, Yeside’s sister shared her Asoebi with her colleagues in trust. They use the clothes, attended the wedding, and are still yet to pay the complete sum to her before and after the funeral. They still owe her nearly 70,000 Naira to this day.
How Yeside accessed the funeral support from WellaHealth
While preparing for the funeral, she remembered that she had once gotten a health plan for her parents from WellaHealth as the one she was provided for by the Ikeja GRA-based PR firm she worked at did not protect them. So, she checked with customer service via WhatsApp, if her father’s plan was still active.
It was.
For your family to receive funeral assistance benefits from WellaHealth, you must have, at the time of death of the enrollee:
- Have an active plan with WellaHealth
- The active plan must be the HospiCash Basic Plan
WellaHealth’s funeral benefits claim processing is designed to be as seamless as the process of making claims for hospital cash back.
According to Ugonna Okereke, the CS Lead in charge of the plan fulfillment at WellaHealth, you need to have the following to access the funeral support:
- The death certificate from NPC or the hospital provided
- A Valid Government Issued ID of the next of kin
- A form will also be provided that must be filled and returned to WellaHealth’s CS team by the next of kin and the attending doctor or hospital where the death was registered.
You can speak to WellaHealth’s representative here
Where to get a Health Plan that provides funeral support?
There is no time death is less painful. Depending on the circumstance surrounding the death of a loved one, one could argue that some deaths are less painful than others. But is there any less painful death?
With a WellaHealth Plan, Yeside was able to get 80,000 Naira to support the father’s funeral just because she deemed it worth getting a health plan worth only 9,200 Naira for his father.
Like Yeside, you can get a WellaHealth HospiCash Plan here
