The government has given importers up to January 2025 to procure marine insurance for their imports from locally licensed insurance companies.
This was announced by Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development, and Secretary to Treasury, on Thursday, November 7th, 2024, while launching the Local Marine Cargo Insurance Portal at the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in Nakawa.
Ggoobi said using marine insurance will lower commodity prices, which have been preventing Ugandans from purchasing goods in bulk.
He also noted that importers will all be required to use Jubilee insurance under a mechanism known as the Local Marine Cargo Portal.
Alhaj Kaddunabbi Ibrahim Lubega, CEO of the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda, stated that the policy will ensure that importers who incur losses are compensated legally and that importers can be confident that their items will be delivered from wherever they are purchased to their final destination while insured.
Uganda has been losing billions of shillings, according to Jonan Kisakye, the CEO of the Uganda Insurers Association, and stated that with marine insurance, all that money that has been lost will be recovered and added to Uganda’s development.
“This policy will help the country. The marine business has been registering 32 billion shillings each year, but the business is valued at more than 100 billion, implying that Uganda’s insurance industry is losing 60 billion shillings each year,” Kisakye said.
He encouraged Ugandan importers to embrace marine insurance, saying it is not a tax.
