Uganda insurers, S. African institute partner to strengthen human resource
Insurance Institute of Uganda chairman Ronald Zaake (R) shares a light moment with Insurance Regulatory Authority’s Protazio Ssande and Uganda Insurers’ Association’s Miriam Magala during the CEOs breakfast meeting in Kampala last week. COURTESY PHOTO
KAMPALA.
The Insurance Institute of Uganda (IIU) is in the process of working out a partnership with the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA) with the latter agreeing to help in developing Uganda’s sector professionally.
The deal is meant to help IIU strengthen local human resource through regular training in various disciplines that match international insurance employment requirements.
Human capital development has been one of the key areas of focus in growing the industry.
According to IIU chairman Ronald Zaake, the partnership agreement was reached during a recent benchmarking visit to South Africa that aimed at seeing how best the institute can strengthen its training capacity by acquiring specific modules and qualifications.
“We are happy to report that IISA agreed to work with us (IIU) as technical partners to have our courses like diplomas in place and also use their modern professional training materials. A Memorandum of Understanding to that effect is to be signed soon,” he said.
He was speaking last week during the insurance chief executives’ breakfast forum organised to brainstorm on the way forward in developing a local strong sector.
Mr Zaake added that other professional career development engagements have also been made with more insurance players in developed economies such as the Insurance Institute of India and the Chartered Insurance Institute of the United Kingdom, all geared at strengthening the performance of the local industry.
In Uganda, professional training is funded by local insurance companies through revenue created out of the 0.5 per cent mandatory training levy charged on premium.
The penetration
Insurance Institute of Uganda chose to partner with South Africa because her insurance industry is Africa’s best performing with a penetration rate of 15.4 per cent, far above the continent’s average rate of 3.65 per cent. Uganda’s insurance industry, on the other hand, commands a penetration rate of just 0.86 per cent, according to the 2014 Global Insurance Report.
