...Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) has advised the government to establish insurance policy to guide the sector.
This was among issues spelled out by TIRA Commissioner, Dr Baghayo Saqware in an exclusive interview with this paper as part of marking this important global event.
He said that for years the sector has been operating without having the policy, which is key for the country’s socio-economic development. According to him, insurance sector needs a specific board that will help to guide professions in the industry on how to do better in the sector, which cut across in almost every sector.
On insurance for agriculture, Dr Saqware said: “This area have been dealt with. The idea is ward off farmers from poverty during periods of drought, floods, destructive pests and other calamities.”
He said that the initial goal is to reach out to 10,000 farmers in the next five years.
Dr Saqware says the importance of insurance stems from the fact that there is no person who like to get ill, involve in accidents, get injured at places of work die or lose property one accumulates with sweat for a long time.
The benefit of insurance cover is to assure you of treatment when you get ill, consolation when you get involved in accident, death, fire disasters including loss of crops and livestock.
He adds that the importance for a person to have insurance cover is to protect himself against disasters or loss that can occur.
“Insurance is a protection on property, health, and community’s economic disasters,” he says.
He says ordinary insurance are those for vehicles, property and life that provide pensions and other benefits as agreed.
Saqware says the benefit of insurance is to eradicate poverty and raise income especially on people involved in disasters, saying that every person is supposed to have insurance cover to protect himself and those he loves.
“We have been able to issue 1,300 insurance agency licences up to September this year, an increase of 13 per cent and have registered nine digital insurance platforms,” he says.
“For instance, we want to register garages that provide insurance services so that a motor vehicle belonging to a customer with insurance cover should be repaired to the required standard, he says and adds that the guidelines places the limit for the vehicle to be repaired – up to 30 days and that this provides room for service providers to work hard to beat the deadline.
He says TIRA’s guidelines issued in May this year provides room for graduates in the insurance field to be registered by an insurance firm to sell the sector’s products without having a company of themselves.
He also says the sector has entered the digital field and has already registered nine online insurances, adding that a customer van buy insurance cover without walking around with cash.
Regarding payments to insurance beneficiaries, Saqware says TIRA has issued temporary guidelines for paying claims when the customer submits claims when he is involved in disasters.
