By Nelson Mandela Muhoozi.
The industry insurance sector remained on a positive growth trajectory in the year 2022, with agriculture insurance uptake growing to a total of 316,496 farmers.
This was revealed by Alhaj Kaddunabbi Ibrahim Lubega, Chief Executive officer of Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda who was announcing the 2022 Insurance Industry performance results today in Kampala at the insurance tower.
Kaddunabbi said that the 316,496 farmers who were covered generated sh11.4b in Gross Written Premiums (GWPs) to the industry for the insured sum of sh372.2b.
“This brings the cumulative number of farmers to 665,240, and cumulative sum insured of sh 2.3trillion,” he said.
He added, “A total of sh8.75b was paid in claims on the account of losses suffered. Cumulatively, a total of sh32.6b has been paid in claims over the scheme period.”
According to Kaddunabbi, the impressive growth is evidence of recovery of business activity from the effects of Covid -19 pandemic.
Industry Performance.
The industry remained on a positive growth trajectory in the year 2022, with Gross Written Premium (GWP) growing from sh1.183tn in 2021 to shs1.425tn in 2022.
The sector scored a 9.34% in 2020, which grew to 10.61% growth rates registered in 2021 and 20.4% in 2022.
Of the 1.425 trillion, non-life business generated sh818.7b in GWP (up from sh706.7b in 2021) representing a 15.8% growth in premiums and accounting for 57.7% of the market share (59.8% in 2021).
Kaddunabbi said the growth rate in premiums of 15.8% registered in 2022 is significantly higher than the 6.25% which was registered in 2021.
Accordingly, life insurance business on the other hand generated sh485.8b in GWP in 2022 (up from sh397b in 2021) representing a 22.3% growth in premiums and accounting for 34.1% of the market share (32.3% in 2021).
Similarly, the growth rate in life premiums of 22.3% registered in 2022 is significantly higher than the 11.7% which was registered in 2021.
Insurance uptake grows.
In the year 2022, a total of 2,475,657 Ugandans were covered. Considering UBOS’ estimated population of 45.5Million, uptake is 5.4% of the total population.
Kaddunabbi said insurance penetration slightly improved by 0.08% from 0.796% in 2021 to 0.876% in 2022.
“The penetration continues to be depressed by the spread effect of double rebasing of the National GDP over the last 10 years (2014, and 2019),” he said.
