All insurance companies in Uganda are financially stable and sound despite recent media reports that some were on the verge of collapsing, a top executive of the regulatory agency-the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda has said.
“This is to clarify that are no insurance companies at the verge of collapsing. We would like to assure the insurance policyholders and the general public that licensed companies are financially sound and stable,” Alhaj Kaddunabbi Ibrahim Lubega, the CEO of IRA said Wednesday in a statement.
He said the growth rate of any company does not necessarily reflect its strength. Some media houses had used that to conclude that some companies would collapse soon.
On June 28, IRA released industry performance report for the year 2017 and first quarter of 2018, showing a significant growth with gross written premium totaling Shs737 billion from Shs635 billion in 2016, posting an overall growth rate of 16.13 per cent.
According to the report, medical insurance gross written premium grew by 33.16 per cent from Shs121 billion in 2016 to Shs161 billion in 2017.
There was also was increased uptake of agriculture insurance under the Agriculture Insurance Consortium. As at December 2017, the utilisation of the subsidy was Shs3.1billion for 45,704 farmers, which is about 68.1 per cent of the total subsidy.
As at March 2018, the utilisation of the subsidy was Shs4.8 billion for 59,146 farmers while the gross written premium for Agriculture insurance under the consortium arrangement (subsidy plus farmers contribution) was Shs10.1 billion.
In 2016/17 budget, government introduced the agriculture insurance subsidy aiming at making agriculture insurance affordable to farmers and increase access to credit by protecting agriculture loans disbursed by financial institutions from the effects of specified agriculture risks.
The industry paid out Shs291 billion in gross claims for life and non-life insurance policies, an increase by 11.71 per cent from Shs261 billion in 2016.
The performance showed that non-Life business continued to dominate the insurance industry with its gross written premium income growing by 14.65 per cent from Shs450 billion in 2016 to Shs516 billion in 2017. Whereas life gross written premium income increased by 27.19 per cent from Shs132 billion in 2016 to Shs168 billion in 2017 while health medical insurance increased marginally by 0.74 per cent from Shs52.1 billion in 2016 to Shs52.5 billion in 2017.
According to the IRA boss, there is need to have a stable insurance industry in Uganda to boost both investor and public confidence in order to enhance competitiveness and promote insurance inclusiveness.