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Insurance premiums grow to Shs856b
Mr Ibrahim Kaddunabbi Lubega, Insurance Regulatory Authority chief executive officer. FILE PHOTO
Kampala. The insurance sector registered a 17.51 per cent growth, posting gross written premiums of Shs856b for the year ended 2018.
The growth, which jumped from Shs728.4b in 2017, demonstrated growing uptake of insurance products.
Gross written premium is the total sum before deductions, which includes additional and/or returns premiums.
While presenting the insurance sector performance for the year ended 2018 in Kampala, Mr Ibrahim Kaddunabbi Lubega, the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) chief executive officer, said overall, the insurance sector remained positive, posting a two-digit growth trajectory in the year under review.
“In 2018, we licensed a dedicated microinsurance organisation which underwrote Shs24.31m. Insurance penetration increased from 0.8 per cent in 2017 to 0.84 per cent in 2018,” he said, noting that non-life insurance constituted a 66.59 per cent of the market share compared to 70.01 per cent in 2017.
Life accounted for 25.34 per cent in 2018 compared to 22.86 per cent in 2017 while health maintenance organisation constituted 8.07 per cent compared to 7.13 in 2017.
Non-life written premiums grew by 12.3 per cent from Shs507.2b in 2017 to Shs570b in 2018 while life saw written premiums grow by 28.69 per cent from Shs168b to Shs216.9b in the period under review.
Premiums in the health maintenance organization sector grew by 31.25 per cent from Shs52.7b n 2017 to Shs69.1b in 2018.
Mr Lubega said the non-life segment had registered more profits than any other from Shs3.1b in 2017 to Shs19.87b in 2018.
Sector assets increased by 11 per cent from Shs458b in 2017 to Shs508b in 2018.
Uganda currently has 36 insurance companies out of which nine are life, 21 non-life, two reinsures brokers, 1996 insurance agents and 16 bancassurance agents.
The sector is expected to have 18 bank assurance agents.
Bancassurance
Bancassurance, a new insurance vehicle, contributed Shs26b while mobile technologies helped the sector write Shs5b.
