Orient Bank launches new Medical and Life insurance cover

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Orient Bank, a leading commercial bank in Uganda, has officially unveiled a combined Medical and Life Insurance cover dubbed MediLife, a first of its kind in the market, in partnership with the world’s oldest, largest and strongest insurance company, Prudential and Uganda’s leading Health Membership Organization, International Air Ambulance (IAA).

Speaking at the launch of the cover, Julius Kakeeto, Managing Director of Orient Bank Limited said the move is aimed at providing affordable health solutions to not only its customers but also their dependants.

“While the healthcare system in Uganda has improved over the years, it has also become more expensive given the rising cost of living. The purpose of the Medilife insurance cover is to lessen the burden on our customers who have people they care for, enabling them to save more while ensuring that their dependants have access to the best medical facilities in the country,” he said, adding that, “One may ask why a bank would be interested in health care. The health and general wellbeing of our customers is important to us. So we combined this interest with the opportunity that came with the change of law that enabled banks to sell insurance services. Our customers can now do all their banking and insurance business at Orient Bank. “

Speaking at the same event on behalf of partners, Arjun Mallik, MD Prudential East Africa said: “We are pleased to partner with Orient Bank and IAA on this product, MediLife because this partnership is a reinforcement of our mantle: ‘Let’s face life together’. As Julius (Orient MD) has said, we need a healthy population for the economy to thrive and therefore any honest innovation towards ensuring this happens is definitely one that we are excited to be a part of.

According to the Insurance Regulatory Authority Chief Executive Officer, Alhaj Kaddunabbi Ibrahim Lubega, the insurance sector continues to grow but is still plagued by lack of awareness and understanding of the various insurance products available on the market.

“As an industry, last year we realized growth across the board. We saw life insurance business grow from Shs168bn in 2017 to Shs216.9 billion in 2018 while Health Membership Organizations (HMO’s) grew from Shs52.7bn in 2017 to Shs69.1bn in 2018.

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