Poor training hurts insurance penetration

Uganda has the lowest rate of insurance penetration in East Africa.

The insurance sector has attributed the low penetration levels and low written premiums to the lack of sensitisation on various products and limited training.

Currently insurance penetration is at 0.65 per cent, ranking Uganda the fourth in the East African region after Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.

The industry also collects premiums worth Shs239 billion annually, which the Insurance Regulatory Authority believes is low, as the industry has potential to amass more revenues from premiums.

Speaking at a media briefing on Monday, the IRA chief executive officer Ibrahim Kaddunabi said, “There are many reasons which account for the low penetration levels, however, it is mainly attributed to lack of professionalism in the industry, resulting from lack of training in this particular field.

This has resulted into low capacity among insurers to explain the different insurance products and for this, only a few are convinced about buying insurance packages,” he said.
Mr Kaddunabi said without specialised insurance training, Uganda may continuously lag behind in the insurance coverage in the region.

fnalubega@ug.nationmedia.com