UAP Insurance, a general and life insurer operating in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan, plans to launch a range of general Takaful insurance products over the next month.
The products will cover individual and business Takaful, James Muguiyi [pictured], MD of UAP Holdings told The Islamic Globe.
He said: "We have been developing Takaful product lines over the past few months and we plan to launch them into the market in the next month."
Muguiyi explained that UAP Insurance would not be setting up a new subsidiary to deal with Takaful saying this may be considered at a later date. This could mean the company may find its Takaful products a hard sell because Islamic finance specialists in East Africa have said consumers of Takaful prefer buying from companies that
are exclusively Shari'ah compliant or have subsidiaries or windows that meet Shari'ah compliance criteria.
UAP Holdings, which owns UAP Insurance, announced plans to expand into Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo and is continuing the trend where Kenyan companies and industry regulators like the Central Bank and Insurance Regulatory Authority, are taking a leading role in shaping and spreading the penetration of Islamic finance in the eastern Africa region.
"We plan to close a buy-in deal with a Rwandese insurer in the next few weeks," said Muguiyi.
© The Islamic Globe 2011
