New acquisition boosts Sanlam’s market share

To the employees, as expected, officials said they are not planning to make job cuts but instead to create new ones as the business expands.

The executives said that Sanlam has put in place post merger integration specialists or expertise to handle the challenges that come with such acquisitions in form of human resource, products, information technology, asset and finance management among others.

“When you bring two organizations together, it may not be easy; it might look easy on paper but if you don’thandle that integration properly you may destroy value,”Ngulube said.

Commenting on the general transaction issue, SGIU’s Chief Executive Officer, Gary Corbit said policy holders will have the same or better policy terms and conditions.

“The overall market can be assured that Sanlam will continue to offer innovative and customer-centric solutions for all insurance and wealth development requirements,” he said.

This new development comes at the time when Uganda’s insurance industry is enjoying a relative surge in growth, albeit from a very low base.

Insurance premiums underwritten over the years have grown from Shs 80.75billion in 2004 to Shs 635 billion in 2016 as a result of massive promotion campaigns and affordable product innovations targeting customer needs.

Industry concerns

Magabe, however, said there’s need for the industry stakeholders to work together and enhance the sector’s growth especially with regard to insurance penetration.

Currently, Uganda has the lowest insurance penetration in East African Community at less than 1%. Rwanda’s insurance penetration stands at 1% compared with 2.3% in Tanzania and 3.4% in Kenya.

“It is a collective responsibility for all actors to deepen insurance in Uganda,” he said adding, “The government can do its policy and regulatory framework while insurance companies can design products that the market can easily buy for the sector to improve.”

For instance, Magabe said, the government could look at how schools and universities develop curriculum to incorporate contemporary insurance issues and likely trajectory performance.

The other option could be how the government positions itself as far as insuring its property is concerned, he said.

He said Sanlam is aiming at becoming the leading provider in offering insurance products in Uganda. “That is certainly our target and we do see ourselves getting there soon,”he said.