The insurance sector players under their umbrella organization the Uganda Insurers Association (UIA) have embarked on a journey to increase insurance penetration in the manufacturing sector.  

Annet Katusiime the market development manager Uganda Insurers Association while during the 29th Uganda Manufacturers Association International Exhibition said UIA Participated not just as a sponsor but as exhibitor as well to pave way to increase knowledge about insurance among the public.

She said UIA is an umbrella organization that brings together insurance sector players such as insurance and microinsurance companies and works to advance the members interests.

“However, we also look out to the public and we do this by ensuring that our members provide sound and professional services. Our partnership with UMA has been ongoing for many years but was recently formalized,” she said.

Katusiime noted that sponsoring the exhibition will be one of the collaborative activities they will be doing with UMA. The others include research, dialogues, policy discussions where they will be trying to understand the manufacturing sector and also help them to understand the insurance sector so that they feed into each other.

“We are participating in this trade fair under the sub theme; welcome to the sure side of life.  The theme is intended to inform us that we face different types of risks both as individuals and businesses that disorganize us and most of the time take long time to recover and get back to the position we were at before the risks occurred,” she added.

She revealed that when your business is insured you do not have to worry about the risks because their members will cover the risks and keep you in the position you were in before the risk occurred.

“We boast of a membership of thirty-seven members who provide different policies or services that cater for different types of risks. We give you peace of mind in the event that a risk occurs, we will come in and compensate you,” she noted.

Katusiime urged the manufacturing sector players to embrace insurance so that they are covered in cases of risks that can come to their businesses at any time.

She further noted that UIA carried out research that indicated that many people have heard about insurance but do not have enough knowledge about the sector and the benefits that come with being insured.

To this end they used the trade fair and partnership with UMA as one of the avenues that can help them to continuously engage with the manufacturing sector players and the general public to enable them to understand what insurance means.

She noted that currently members under Uganda manufacturers association have been very supportive, many members are insured however the Uganda insurance association is planning to commission different activities to try and understand more especially for those that have not taken the insurance yet and to try to exactly understand what causes this.

This year’s international trade fair attracted over 1000 exhibitors both local and international and at least 25000 visitors on a daily basis.

According to Dr. Ezra Muhumuza, executive director Uganda Manufacturers Association, the partnership with the Uganda Insurers Authority will further improve the country’s manufacturing sector.

He said UIA is already giving the manufacturers export guarantee an insurance package for exporters who are exporting to markets that they are not certain about a package that will help manufacturers increase their export volumes.

“This package means we shall be able to reduce the level of risks and secure some funds that will be set aside for more investment. We shall also be able to reduce shocks that can scare away manufacturers such as aspects like fire and strikes that are uncertain shocks that disrupt the way of doing business,” he said.

Dr. Muhumuza revealed that the partnership has been on going and UIA has already started on a full scale study to identify all the manufactures in this country and they have also partnered with them on dialogues especially the post budget and budget dialogues to discuss issues that must be focused on for de-risking as well as sponsoring the 29th UMA International exhibition.

Source: The New Vision (Click here to view)