Non-life continues to dominate insurance sector, but microinsurance is rapidly growing  

Insurance gross written premiums grew by 12.04%, increasing by at least UGX 192.4 billion in the three months to December 2024.  

Details contained in the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) Market Performance Report show that gross written premiums rose from UGX 1.5 trillion in the same period in 2023 to UGX 1.7 trillion supported by considerable growth in microinsurance, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and life premiums. 

During the period, microinsurance posted the largest share of growth of 67.4%, doubling gross written premiums from just UGX 888 million to UGX 1.4 billion, while premiums under HMOs grew by 24.01%, rising from UGX 56.3 billion to UGX 69.8 billion. 

Life insurance premiums grew by 22.47% from UGX 606.6 billion to UGX 742.9 billion, while non-life grossed UGX 976.5 billion from UGX 934.4 billion, representing a growth of 4.50%.

Non-life continued to dominate the insurance sector contributing at least 54.53%, generated from 504,010 group and individual policies.  

Life followed with a 41.49% market share generated from 158,963 policies, while HMO and microinsurance contributed 3.90% and 0.08%, respectively. 

Microinsurance policies grew considerably to 160,325 from 104,096, majority of which were individual policies. 

Insurance premiums have been growing, with the growth averaging at least UGX 1.1 billion in each of the four quarters to December 2024. 

Data from IRA indicates that insurance sector written premiums grossed UGX4.6 trillion in the 12 months to December 2024. 

Despite the growth, insurance penetration remains below 1%, with many Ugandans still left out of one of the most important sectors of the country’s financial markets. 

However, new innovations such as Bancassurance, among others have been key in supporting both growth in insurance premiums and penetration. 

IRA has also previously indicated that full implantation of Marine Insurance, which requires importers to insure their goods locally, remains key in growing insurance premiums and deepening penetration. 

During the three months to December 2024, Bancassurance grossed UGX 225 billion, of which the largest share of 78.26% or UGX176 billion was generated from life insurance, while 21.74% or UGX 48.9 billion was from non-life insurance.  

Data further indicates that Marine Insurance, which was implemented in the last half of 2024, registered UGX 39.1 billion, which suggests a good start for a sector that continues to seek improvement in both penetration and written premiums. 

Under non-life, the largest share of written premiums was generated by health and medical, motor third party and fire insurance, which during the period returned a combined contribution of 61.9%, while under life insurers generated the largest share of written premiums from individual life, medical or health and group credit policies.