Stakeholders want insurance taught in school

Kampala
A number of stakeholders want the government to include the study of insurance on the secondary schools curriculum and undergraduate university courses.

They say will help to improve the understanding and uptake of insurance in Uganda.

Mr Geoffrey Kihuguru, the chairman of Insurance Institute of Uganda (IIU) told Daily Monitor last week that the initiative is currently being handled by Bank of Uganda and the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) and could be implemented by 2013.

“What we want is for a person to grow up with knowledge of insurance. Therefore including insurance on the school’s curriculum will be a step towards achieving this,” Mr Kihuguru said.

He added: “This is one way we believe the industry will develop much faster. We are also introducing more programmes to address the knowledge gap.”

Empowering Ugandans
According to Mr Ibrahim Kaddunabbi Lubega, the chief executive officer of the Insurance Regulatory Authority, the move, if implemented, will help to empower Ugandans in the control and running of the country’s insurance industry.

“The mistake we are committing is training people when they have already joined the industry. It is better to start having comprehensive insurance lessons at the high school level. Today, the industry is run by imported talent but all this can change if we train our own right from high school,” Mr Kaddunabbi said.

The insurance industry is currently undertaking various steps to recruit more people into taking up insurance services.
Recently, a training levy of 0.5 on each premium paid was introduced to help fund the activities of the Insurance Institute.

These finances paid each year will be controlled by a Board of Trustees independent from the institute’s management.
nkalungi@ug.nationmedia.com