Insurance companies raked in Shs628b in 2016 - regulator

What you need to know:

  • Mr Ivan Kilameri, the IRA statistician, explained that the trade fare was an opportunity for IRA to engage the public which he said was still ignorant about insurance products.
  • Manufacturers decried delays in full implementation of the Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) policy which they said had kept trade imbalance at $3.5b.

Kampala. Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has revealed that the insurance industry collected Shs628b in 2016/2017 Financial Year rising from the Shs600b that was collected in 2015/2016.
Ms Mariam Nalunkuuma, the IRA communications officer, said Shs188.4b (30 per cent) was spent on claims and Shs251.2b was used to insure clients’ covers.

“Shs188.4b (30 per cent) remained in the coffers of insurance companies. The insurance did very well in terms of settling claims and we intervened in settling misunderstandings between insurers and clients,” Ms Nalunkuuma told Daily Monitor in Kampala last week.

A total of Shs200 billion was spent on clearing insurance claims in the 2015/2016 fiscal year.
This was revealed by Mr Protazio Sande, the IRA assistant director marketing and development at sports gala for insurance companies in September last year.
Mr Ivan Kilameri, the IRA statistician, explained that the trade fare was an opportunity for IRA to engage the public which he said was still ignorant about insurance products.

“Many times you find an insurance company engaged in wrangles with claimants because the claimant did not understand the cover he undertook. We mediate in such scenarios so that the two parties come to a compromise,” Mr Kilameri said.
Ms Nalunkuuma encouraged insurance companies to indemnify clients’ covers to avoid troubles that could arise when disasters doubling their net capital happen.

She encouraged underwriters to underwrite covers that are not very strenuous for instance, to avoid taking covers in billions when their capital is in millions of shillings.
“If your capital is Shs5b and you underwrite an insurance cover of Shs600b, you should be fast at insuring it because you won’t be able to get out of it when a disaster happens,” Ms Nalunkuuma added.

Meanwhile, manufacturers decried delays in full implementation of the Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) policy which they said had kept trade imbalance at $3.5b (Shs12.6 trillion).
“...Local industries need only 40 per cent of this order to transform the current situation,” said UMA board member Richard Mubiru.