13 insurance companies shortlisted for 2020 awards

INSURANCE|AWARDS|IRA

KAMPALA - The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has shortlisted 13 insurance companies for the 2020 best insurance awards.

The inaugural annual insurance innovations award is the first of its kind and being coordinated by Global Consulting Services.

The awarding ceremony will take place on December 18, 2020 at Kampala Serena Hotel.

Speaking during unveiling the shortlisted finalists, Brain Tosh Bwana, a consultant with IRA said the awards are meant to recognise and reward excellence in innovations in the insurance sector.

"The awards are purposely to identify, recognise and reward excellence in the innovations sector to see how you can reach the far end to the bottom of the pyramid of the consumers of insurance," he said.

Bwana argued that coming up with such awards will spur development penetration of the insurance sector in the country.

"The awards come at a time when COVID-19 has hit so many businesses and you have got to be as creative as possible to keep afloat, the good news is that as opposed to other businesses, the insurance sector has actually seen an increase in the uptake premiums," he explained.

Among the unveiled insurance organisations that made it to the list were; Excel Insurance company, Legacy Insurance Brokers, ICEA Life, Jubilee Insurance General, Diamond Trust Bank, Housing Finance Bank, ICEA General Insurance, Kenbright Insurance Brokers, Prudential Insurance Company, Turaco Insurance Company and Minet.

John Katende, Employee Benefits at Minet Uganda said, "We came up with a Lovecare program which was looking at the return to work; we set out an isolation center and also manage COVID-19 emergency. If one of the employees has COVID what do you do as an organisation again we had to come in and help them with that matrix," he said.

Paul Muwanga, Managing Director, Excel Insurance Company Limited said they were very optimistic that they would scoop the award citing that, most innovations they had come up with aimed at benefiting people, though they had no idea about the pandemic and had not prepared for it.

"We had been preparing to ensure that the client is served and during COVID -19 we continued to do that. We did not see any difference as far as the client is concerned and they could not see any difference apart from physically coming to our offices," Muwanga noted.