The companies include Jubilee Life Insurance Company Ltd, Metropolitan Tanzania Life Assurance Company Limited and Alliance Life Assurance Limited.
Arusha. There are only five companies offering life insurance services in the country, according to the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (Tira).
The companies include Jubilee Life Insurance Company Ltd, Metropolitan Tanzania Life Assurance Company Limited and Alliance Life Assurance Limited.
But two more firms have been licensed to offer the same services and will start operations by the end of the year, bringing the total to seven.
This was revealed here this week by Tira commissioner Dr Baghayo Saqware when speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual conference of the Organisation of Eastern and Southern Africa Insurers (OESAI).
All in all, there were 30 licensed insurance firms in Tanzania offering different insurance premiums which, he said, were few due to low penetration of insurance knowledge.
Dr Saqware, however, said Tira was geared to turning around the the sector through the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
This, according to him, include the recent launch of a digital platform www.tiip.co.tz aimed to help local importers buy insurance policies from local insurance companies for all imported goods.
This is as required by the amendment of Article No. 133 of the Insurance Act of 2009.
The portal is now active and available for use by all importers, clearing agents, insurance agents, insurance brokers and companies. The facility, which will serve as one-stop insurance transaction platform for all imports, has been launched by Tira in collaboration with the Insurance Institute of Tanzania (IIT).
According to him, currently there are a total of 413 licensed agents and 150 recognised insurance brokers across the country.
“Already local insurance firms are benefitting because it was cheaper for them to pay taxes locally in Tanzanian shillings instead of the previous mode where they used to pay in foreign currencies, making it expensive,” he said.
Opening the conference, the deputy minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji, decried poor knowledge of insurance by 75 per cent of the smallholder farmers.
“Our farmers are not even aware on how to access loans from the banks and other financial institutions”, she said, calling for increased public sensitization on insurance covers.
