Insurers move to curb motor third party insurance fraud with integrated MTP-EPS system

Since the rolled out of mandatory mobile motor third party insurance in 2019, 414,550 policies have been issued through the system worth Shs 30.6bn in premiums

Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | The Insurance Regulatory Authority has linked its third party insurance platform to the police’s Express Penalty Scheme system to enable police officers easily detect counterfeit insurance covers.

Joseph Ndiho, the project’s technical leader at IRA, said the police are now in position to easily verify the authenticity of the insurance stickers on motor vehicles by merely keying in their registration numbers in the Express Penalty System.

Clare Asasire, the information communication officer at the Uganda Police Force said the integrated system will now enable traffic police officers to ascertain the validity of the insurance policy.

“EPS will now give us the information in relation to the type of insurance policy that the vehicle owner holds, expiry date,   insurance company, vehicle model, vehicle chassis number, vehicle owner and others,” she said. Traffic police officer will now no longer have to be manually check insurance stickers on the motor vehicles and this will help in elimination of counterfeit motor third party stickers.”

This follows a study by the industry regulator, IRA that revealed a grave non-compliance in the purchase of the mandatory motor third party insurance policies, denying accident victims compensation from insurance providers.

Statistics from the Ministry of Works and Transport shows that as of June.30, 2020, 1,361,861 motor vehicles were registered on the e-tax platform while 940,160 were yet to be validated on the platform. However, less than 40% of the current vehicles on the roads have a mandatory third party insurance covers.

Ibrahim Kddunabi Lubega, the chief executive officer at the IRA said all traffic police officers have been trained on how to use the system.

“We believe the successful installation of the motor third party system onto the Express Penalty System will ease the work of traffic police officers as they enforce compliance,” he said.

Gen. Katumba Wamala, the minister for works and transport said enhanced compliance to motor third party insurance will generate mutual benefits to all parties – vehicle owners, other road users (third parties) and the government.

“I want to take this opportunity therefore to appeal to Ugandans to exercise their constitutional rights by obeying the law to the letter,” he said.

“Ensure you have a motor third party insurance at the very minimum because if you don’t have it, the non-compliance space has been narrowed and you will surely be apprehended.”

IRA and in collaboration with the Ministry of Works and Transport, Uganda Revenue Authority and the Uganda Insurers Association rolled out the  mandatory mobile payment platform to streamline the operation of motor third party insurance two years ago.

Since then, 414,550 policies have been issued through the system worth Shs 30.6bn in insurance premiums. Off these, government has earned Shs 14.1bn in taxes.

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