Sampaul Nakhaima Chairperson Sandbox Committee Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda
Customer expectations are shifting, risks are becoming more complex, and technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace. Yet, despite all these shifts, insurers continue to design and deliver solutions just as they did twenty years ago.
Today’s customers are increasingly getting used to instant payments, mobile transactions, seamless digital onboarding and services available at the tap of the screen. Naturally, they expect the same ease from insurers. They no longer to spend days shuffling between offices, filling out endless paperwork, or waiting indefinitely for claims to be processed. What they seek is insurance that fits effortlessly into their lives and not lives that must bend around the provider.
This is evident among those seeking access to microinsurance. A market vendor may not find annual premiums practical. A farmer’s risks are tied to specific seasons and weather patterns. A boda boda rider may prefer coverage purchased in small increments via mobile phone. A small business may benefit most when insurance is embedded directly into the digital platforms it already uses to trade. These customers are not rejecting insurance; in many cases, insurance has simply not been redesigned to meet their demands and realities.
Now, this is where the insurance industry must confront an uncomfortable question: if innovators are developing solutions to these problems, are insurance companies genuinely opening their doors to them? Innovation cannot thrive at conferences, hackathons and award ceremonies alone. No! Neither can an innovator transform insurance from outside the insurance ecosystem. At some point, ideas need access to real customers, underwriting expertise, distribution networks, claims systems, data, capital and risk carriers.
When innovators invest months in developing promising solutions, only to meet closed doors when seeking partnerships with insurers, the industry risks a glaring contradiction: speaking enthusiastically about innovation while guarding the very processes that innovation is meant to transform. The cost of hesitation extends beyond a single failed start-up. It is the possibility of losing relevance with a generation of customers whose expectations have already moved on. The goal here is not to embrace every new idea that is presented to an insurer, but to move beyond rejecting them simply because they challenge established ways of doing business.
This is why initiatives such as the Insurance Innovation Challenge, implemented by the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda (IRA) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), matter. The Challenge is searching for ideas capable of extending insurance to people and businesses that conventional models have struggled to reach. Alongside the IRA’s Regulatory Sandbox which provides an avenue through which eligible innovations can be tested in a controlled regulatory environment. The decisive step must happen within the industry. Insurers need to become willing partners in experimentation. This does not mean abandoning prudence, underwriting discipline or consumer protection. It means creating controlled opportunities for innovators to prove whether their solutions work.
Through the Insurance Regulatory Sandbox and the InsureX program, ideas are undergoing transformation with some being tested.
It is time for insurers to embrace a new direction, because Uganda’s next major breakthrough may not emerge from conventional products sold through traditional channels. With fresh ideas taking shape and innovative platforms being tested, the real transformation could come from the adoption of a concept pioneered by a student, an entrepreneur, an insurtech, or an insurer bold enough to rethink how protection is delivered. The future belongs to those willing to move with it.
The writer is Sampaul Nakhaima Chairperson Sandbox Committee Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda
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