Effective 1st July 2020, the payment of Motor Third Party insurance will be easily and conveniently bought via their MTN and Airtel connected mobile phones.
Motor Third Party is mandatory for every owner of a motor vehicle and motorcycles.
To buy insurance, Airtel, clients dial *185# then choose option 7 (financial services); option 6 (insurance); option 1 (Motor Third Party). They will then be prompted to enter their motor vehicle number plate. The system then remotely references the Ministry of Works/URA motor vehicle registry and automatically generates the payable premium based on the registered details of the vehicle. Users will then be required to key in their Airtel Money password to complete the payment.
Upon successful payment, the system then generates a reference number that can be presented to any insurer or insurance agent to print a sticker.
According to IRA, the insurance company that prints the sticker will then become the actual company that bears the liability, in case a claim arises.
MTN customers, on the other hand, shall dial *165#, select option 4 (payments), option 5 (fees and taxes) and then option 5 (Motor Third Party). After this, they shall then be required to input their motor vehicle registration number for an automatic premium assessment. A reference number will be generated after completion of payment to be used to obtain a printed sticker from a preferred agent or insurance company.
Addressing the media at the launch, Al-Hajj Kadunabbi Lubega, the Chief Executive Officer of IRA, said that the innovation was largely driven by the need to make compliance easy but also to fight fraud.
“We wanted to make life easy for the clients buying Motor Third Party Insurance using the technologies available, but also to fight insurance fraud in this class of business that has been characterized by the issuance of fake Motor Third Party Insurance stickers to the unsuspecting public which leaves them exposed,” he said.
According to IRA, whereas there are 2,100,000 insurable motor vehicles, only 530,000 are insured.
Stephen Chikovore, Old Mutual General Insurance’s CEO in Uganda to Step Down in January 2026“The rest, most likely have forged stickers but they don’t know. As a result, there has been a general public outcry about insurance companies not being able to compensate the victims of Motor accidents,” Kadunabbi said.
The industry accordingly loses an estimated UGX98 billion in premiums and government over UGX50 billion in uncollected stamp duty.
Benefits of the digital motor third party insurance
Kadunabbi said that the new platform would “ensure that all vehicles are issued with genuine motor third party insurance certificates/stickers” and “eliminate forgeries which hitherto left many people exposed.”
“It will enable Motor Third Party Insurance clients to make appropriate insurance premiums to avoid overcharging the public. It will also improve Motor Third Party Insurance claims management process through accurate data which is generated daily; therefore reducing substantially the period between claim lodging and settlement,” he added, saying this would also ensure that insurance companies offer quality services to customers.
“From the regulatory perspective, we are certain that having a central consumption process of Motor Third Party Insurance will enable us to set policies that protect and safeguard the rights and benefits of the policyholders. We are sure that this innovation has set the pace for insurance companies to invest further in the offering of digital products and make insurance service provision accessible,” Kadunabbi also said.
Paul Kavuma, the Chief Executive Officer of Uganda Insurers Association said that the “improved efficiency in payments of premiums will equally result into efficiency in claims settlement.”