Uganda Insurers Association (UIA), the umbrella organization for all the insurance companies in Uganda, has embarked on efforts to create awareness and encourage uptake of Life insurance in Uganda.
The highly emotional campaign kicked off on UIA’s social media pages featuring children answering a series of questions about how they envision life without their parents and guardians. Through this digital based campaign, UIA intends to encourage families to take up life insurance policies by appealing to them to secure a future for themselves and their dependants.
According to the Uganda Insurers Association, Life assurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a specified beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person or upon the happening of another specified event.
Life insurance generally falls under four categories:
• Whole Life Insurance policies which cover the entire life time of the policy holder. The premium is paid till the expiry of an agreed period and the policy pays out at death- whenever death occurs during the policyholders’ lifetime.
• Term Insurance policies which are taken for specific periods of time and because the time/period is specified, premiums are either paid throughout that period or as a single premium summing all future payments.
• Endowment policies, like term insurance policies, are taken for specified periods and premiums are paid throughout the term of the policy or until death-whichever occurs first. These are primarily for financial benefit of policy holder, and secondarily for protection of family in case of death.
• Pension Plans/Annuities allow you to pay regular premiums until the usual retirement age (usually 60 years) after which the insurer makes monthly, quarterly or annual pension payments to you until you die.
Commenting about the life insurance efforts, Ms. Miriam Magala, the UIA Chief Executive Officer, noted that with a relatively steady and growing economy, there is an increase in the number of Ugandans who can afford insurance, but many of them lack awareness about the policies and their benefits.
“By focusing on life insurance, UIA will help families, businesses, employers, and other parties to protect against a financial loss that occurs when someone dies or is no longer able to work for certain reasons. Additionally, through life insurance, Ugandans will get a cushion during their old age when their ability to engage in productive work is minimal,” she noted.
This is not the first time that the Uganda Insurers Association has embarked on a campaign to create awareness of an insurance policy. Throughout 2017, the association held a country wide insurance literacy campaign through which they created awareness for Life insurance, agriculture insurance, Workers Compensation Insurance, Motor Third Party and Comprehensive insurance.