IRA to licence 10,000 agents to boost agriculture insurance uptake
The Insurance Regulatory Authority is set to licence a total of 10,000 agents who will help the regulator to boost the uptake of the agriculture insurance.
“As we all know agriculture is the backbone of our economy and as we know, government has launched the parish development model with big a component of agriculture. In support of the agriculture insurance consortium, we want to licence, a cluster of agents who are only going to sell agriculture insurance to the population,” the IRA Chief Executive Officer, Ibrahim Lubega Kaddunabbi said.
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He was speaking during a breakfast meeting with stakeholders in the insurance sector on Thursday.
Kaddunabbi said the insurance regulator expects to licence about 10,000 new agents who will only be looking at selling agriculture insurance products.
Agriculture insurance
A total of 13 insurance companies formed a coalition with government to form the Agro Consortium Uganda Limited aimed at mitigating financial loss as a result of damage and destruction of their crops and livestock due to fire, drought, floods, landslides, hailstorm damage, and pests and diseases.
The insurance company helps train, sensitise and create awareness about agriculture insurance.
Speaking on Thursday, the Insurance Regulatory Authority CEO said with agriculture being the backbone for Uganda, there is need to cushion farmers from losses.
The IRA boss also urged insurance companies to put much emphasis on mircro insurance so as to help in the growth of insurance uptake.
Performance
He noted that the performance of the industry in the three quarters of the year 2023 ending September shows an improvement from what had been predicted.
“We managed to underwrite businesses worth shs1.8 trillion. It is an improvement from what it was in the three quarters of 2021. We have seen above 18.6% growth over this period and that is more than the 15% we had anticipated our growth would be,”Kaddunabbi said.
He attributed the success to efforts by the regulator and insurance players in instilling confidence in the public but also players improving in claim settlement.
