Uganda: Regulatory official says promising progress made in localising marine insurance
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | May 2023
The localisation of marine insurance in Uganda has seen progress, an official of the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has said.
Mr Steven Kaddu Mukasa, the IRA official, said that while the localisation process was slow, the progress so far was promising. According to a report by Daily Monitor, he said, “The process takes time, but we envision a big turnaround when it is fully implemented.”
The IRA has created an online portal through which would generate automatic marine insurance quotations after importers input the details of the goods they import.
Freight forwarders are questioning the delay in implementing the localisation of marine insurance. Uganda Clearing Industry and Forwarding Association chairman Jaffer Abdallah Farjallah said that members were dissatisfied with the situation.
The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and the IRA have urged traders to obtain marine cargo insurance policies for their imports from locally licensed insurance companies, before obtaining customs clearance.
The implementation of this move follows a 31 July 2019 directive from the minister of finance requiring URA to provide the local marine cargo/goods-in-transit certificate of insurance on the Uganda electronic single window. The implementation of the directive was to have been started on 1 July 2022 and carried out in a phased manner within a three-month grace period that ended on 30 September 2022. M