Uganda's insurance industry raised shs1.4 trillion in gross written premiums in the year 2022, the Insurance Regulatory Authority has said.
According to the sector performance report released on Wednesday the shs1.4 trillion was a 20.4% growth from the shs1.18 trillion in 2021 .
"Of the 1.425 trillion, non-life business generated shs818.7billion in gross written premium from shs706.7billion in 2021 representing a 15.8% growth in premiums and accounting for 57.7% of the market share The growth rate in premiums of 15.8% registered in 2022 is significantly higher than the 6.25% which was registered in 2021," IRA CEO, Al Haj Ibrahim Kaddunabbi Lubega said .
According to the performance report, life insurance business generated shs 485.8billion in gross written premiums in 2022 up from shs397billion in 2021 representing a 22.3% growth in premiums and accounting for 34.1% of the market share compared to 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.
On the other hand, Health Membership Organizations generated shs 38.3billion, down from shs48.3billion in 2021 representing a 20.7% decline.
"The significant decline was as a result of exit of one HMO , IML and loss of some clients to health insurers due to an increase in premium at renewal arising from the previous poor loss experience," Kaddunabbi said.
On the other hand, specialist the health insurance company generated shs 81.4billion from shs 31.08billion written in half of its first year of operation in 2021.
This accounted for 5.7% of the market share.
Microinsurance companies generated shs 0.611billion marginally reducing from shs 0.657billion in 2021and accounted for 2.7% of the market share .
"The reduction in growth may be attributed to competitive pressures on incomes especially at the lower income pyramid brought about by increasing costs of living. We shall continue to examine this area with a view of identifying key interventions owing to the critical importance of this segment," the Insurance Regulatory Authority CEO said.
The performance report indicates that gross written premium income collected through the brokerage distribution channel was shs 480billion compared to shs 412.6billion generated in 2021 representing a 16.0% growth.
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In relative terms, brokers business accounted for 29% of the total insurance premium which was an increase by 2.1% compared to the contribution of 26.9% in 2021).
On the other hand, gross written premium collected through the Bancassurance channel was shs142.7billion compared to shs 103.5billion collected in 2021, representing a 37.8% growth and accounting for 10% of the total premiums .
Asset base
The insurance sector net assets increased from shs834.3billion in 2021 to shs 924.2billion in 2022 which is an increment of 11%.
Net assets refers to the value of the company assets after deducting all liabilities and these are a measure of financial strength and capability of the sector to absorb risks.
Sande Protazio, the director of planning, research and market development at the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda (IRA) attributed the performance to a number of factors.
