Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has a fairly candid view of the market it supervises: small insurers may survive, but larger institutions are better positioned to absorb shocks, retain bigger risks and finance the increasingly complex insurance needs of a growing economy.
That thinking is behind IRA’s continued push for consolidation, collaboration and mergers, a strategy that is already reshaping Uganda’s insurance league tables.
‘We have encouraged collaboration for a long time because we do not want small, weak businesses. Larger companies can handle bigger risks and support national projects,’ IRA Director of Supervision Bernard Obel says.
For IRA, therefore, scale is not simply about creating bigger balance sheets. It is about building insurers with sufficient capital, underwriting expertise and risk-retention capacity to insure infrastructure, oil and gas, engineering, aviation, marine and other large commercial projects without sending excessive premiums abroad through reinsurance.
The argument is becoming more important as Uganda approaches commercial oil production and undertakes infrastructure investments requiring insurance cover beyond what smaller insurers can comfortably retain.
IRA requires insurers facing large risks to exhaust available local capacity before transferring risk abroad. Mergers potentially increase that capacity by combining capital, underwriting platforms, distribution networks and reinsurance arrangements.
‘When two companies come together, they can enhance their ability to retain more risks, which helps reduce capital flight,’ Obel says.
IRA says discussions with the Petroleum Authority of Uganda over the insurance industry’s capacity to participate in oil and gas have reinforced the need for stronger institutions.
Consolidation, IRA argues, is helping close that capacity gap, with the clearest evidence emerging in general insurance.
SanlamAllianz, created from the combination of Sanlam General and Jubilee Allianz General, has become Uganda’s largest non-life insurer.
By June 2026, SanlamAllianz had written Shs113.18b in gross premiums, controlling 20.47 percent of the general insurance market. Old Mutual General followed with Shs96.23b and 17.4 percent.
The Shs16.95b gap illustrates what consolidation can produce. At the end of 2025, SanlamAllianz had Shs209.47b in premiums, only Shs2.29b ahead of Old Mutual’s Shs207.18b.
Historically, Sanlam and Jubilee were already substantial businesses.
In 2021, they generated Shs89.68b and Shs83.23b, respectively. Their combined Shs172.91b would have exceeded UAP General’s Shs152.8b.
By 2024, their combined premiums had reached Shs201.15b, exceeding Old Mutual’s Shs184.97b by Shs16.18b.
The merger turned that theoretical combined strength into a single capital base, underwriting operation, reinsurance programme and distribution strategy.
It has also produced a diversified portfolio. By June, fire insurance contributed Shs41.38b to SanlamAllianz, motor Shs22.91b, miscellaneous insurance Shs21.3 b and liability Shs11.98b.
The insurer also carries marine, engineering, aviation and bond business. A similar transformation has also unfolded in life insurance.
Jubilee Life became Uganda’s largest life insurer after Jubilee Holdings amalgamated its previously separate health and life insurance businesses.
By June 2026, Jubilee had generated Shs131.68b in gross written premiums, commanding 25.12 percent of the Shs524.14b life insurance market.
Prudential followed with Shs123.37b and 23.54 percent, while ICEA Life generated Shs112.27b for 21.42 percent.
Together, the three largest insurers controlled 70.08 percent of life premiums.
Jubilee’s scale changed dramatically after consolidation, with its reported premiums increasing 109.87 percent from Shs62.74b in the first half of 2025 to Shs131.68b in June 2026.
Medical insurance alone contributed Shs66.37b, representing 50.4 percent of Jubilee’s premiums. Individual life contributed Shs55.3b, with annuities, pensions, group life and group credit adding further diversification.
The combination pushed Jubilee ahead of Prudential, which had dominated Uganda’s life insurance market for four consecutive years.
Prudential itself demonstrates how acquisitions can create scale. After acquiring Goldstar Life Assurance in 2015, it later acquired IAA Healthcare’s medical portfolio. Its premiums eventually surged from Shs6.97b in 2017 to Shs234.87b in 2025.
Yet Jubilee’s consolidation was enough to redraw the rankings. The broader industry is expanding alongside this restructuring.
Insurance premiums rose to Shs1.09 trillion during the first half of 2026, up by 7.68 percent from Shs1.01 trillion a year earlier.
Life insurance grew 30 percent to Shs524.14b, narrowing its gap with non-life to only 2.63 percentage points. Insurers simultaneously paid Shs500.13b in claims.
IRA also indicates that capitalisation of the insurance sector remains strong overall. Data indicates that industry assets stood at approximately Shs3.77 trillion by June, while the weighted average capital adequacy ratio was 271 percent, comfortably above the 200 percent regulatory minimum.
Distribution is expanding too, with bancassurance premiums increasing by 33.82 percent from Shs137.48b to Shs183.98b, accounting for 16.82 percent of industry premiums. Brokers placed another Shs410.61 billion in business.
That growth gives larger insurers more channels through which to deploy their expanded capital and product portfolios.
IRA insists consolidation should not be confused with shrinking the industry. Obel says there is no evidence mergers are producing widespread downsizing; instead, companies are becoming more efficient.
IRA’s challenge is to ensure that bigger also means stronger, with insurers maintaining adequate capital, disciplined underwriting, sound governance, effective claims management and sufficient reinsurance as risks become larger and more complex. That distinction matters.
A merger can create size overnight, but sustainable strength ultimately depends on how effectively that scale is managed.
Still, recent market movements provide IRA with evidence for its argument. SanlamAllianz now leads general insurance after combining two established insurers, while Jubilee leads life insurance after integrating health and life operations.
In both markets, consolidation has not merely created bigger companies. It has changed who sits at the top.
That is the direction IRA wants the insurance market to move in, occasioned by fewer vulnerabilities, stronger local risk retention, and insurers capable of standing behind the larger investments expected to drive Uganda’s next phase of economic growth.