By Rhoda Nakawooza
The Covid-19, pandemic has been an eye opener to the public exposing the uncertainty of life. The post-pandemic period has seen people taking steps to safeguard themselves such as taking social security measures like insurances .
UCU’s School of Journalism, Media and Communications Head of Department for Undergraduate Studies John Semakula says he bought an insurance policy because of Covid-19, which was a bitter lesson to him. He learnt that saving money helps in times of crisis. He saves with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), but also needed other ways of saving.
“I have spent some years hearing about insurance but then I had never thought of joining it, even when I had seen one or two people joining it because I never thought it could be important,” Semakula said.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought the entire world to a standstill with people’s movements restricted or completely halted without work. The pandemic affected global ,national and family economies.
At Uganda Christian university some staff were laid off while students and parents struggled with school fees payments.
University education in the developed world is secured by insurance packages of different forms such as tuition, travel , accommodation , medical and so on. In Uganda the insurance industry has made little inroads into people’s confidence who prefer to make small community saving schemes such as SACCOs.
Charles Tinkamanyire, a financial advisor with Insurance Company of East Africa (ICEA) and an alumnus of Uganda Christian University (UCU), said that people ought to subscribe to insurance : “We are uncertain of tomorrow.”
“There is no need for people to fear saving with insurance companies because all companies are regulated by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA). There is no way a company can close without compensating its clients,” added Tinkamanyire.
Mr. Tinkamanyire who held a short training session on the value of insurance with the School of Journalism,Media and Communication stressed that with insurance one is able to achieve compensation for their risk goals such as education ,medical, fire compensation and death among many other risks. For certain policies the clients get an interest at the end of the policy term just by saving.
