Insurance contracts to be drafted in Kiswahili

Dar es Salaam. All insurance contracts will be written in Kiswahili and English languages starting 2023/2024 financial year, the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (Tira) has said.

Tira believes the move will help improve public understanding and uptake of insurance products.

Tanzania has a huge insurance market potential that has remained untapped.

Authorities have in recent years increased efforts to make insurance products reach as many people as possible, but low knowledge and exposure of insurance dealers remains a major setback.

Tanzania’s insurance vision is to insure 50 percent of the adult population (about 20 million people from current five million) by 2030.

Apart from other challenges that hinder the desire to insure many Tanzanians, complaints have emerged in recent days about the use of English language in insurance contracts, which is a problem for most locals.

Tira said yesterday the government expects that in the financial year 2023/2024, insurance companies will prepare contracts in English and Kiswahili to make it easier for citizens to understand what is written.

Recently, businessmen of the Kariakoo market complained during a meeting that contracts prepared by insurance companies in English language only were causing difficulties in grasping key aspects of the contracts.

Tira commissioner general Dr Baghayo Saqware said when he met with insurance agents recently to discuss the challenges they were facing, that insurance companies have started to craft contracts in Kiswahili language as well.

“The languages in agreements will be two; English and Kiswahili starting from the financial year 2023/2024 so that we can reach our goal of 2030,” he said.

He said they have already agreed with the companies that the payment documents given to insurance customers should be written in Kiswahili.

“We have agreed that the payment documents given to insurance customers should be written in Kiswahili and have started to be used,” said Dr Saqware.

With the goal of attaining a public uptake of 80 percent come 2030, the authority plans to expand its network of insurance agents, and bancassurance agents to a higher number so as to be accessible across the country.

The Chairperson of the Insurance Agents Association of Tanzania (IAAT), Mr Sai Daudi said that they were looking at the challenges they faced as an industry and finding solutions.

He noted there were 30 insurance companies and more than 1200 agents across the country tasked to ensure that every Tanzanian gets the service in a trustworthy manner.

“We are looking at the challenges we face in delivering services for Tanzanians even in rural areas as the government demands us to reach at least 50 percent of the market by 2030, but as it is now, we are still far,” said Mr Daudi.