By Joseph Kiggundu
KCB Bank Uganda has introduced a new insurance product that provides customers with a cash payment for each qualifying night spent in hospital, alongside a funeral benefit for the insured.
The product, known as KCB MyCare, has been developed in partnership with Jubilee Life Insurance Company of Uganda and is available to personal banking customers aged between 18 and 70.
Customers can subscribe to the cover at a monthly premium of Shs3,000. The policy provides a fixed payment of Shs50,000 per eligible night in hospital, for up to 36 nights in a year.
It also provides a Shs2 million funeral benefit to the nominated beneficiaries if the insured customer dies.
Unlike conventional medical insurance, KCB MyCare does not settle hospital bills directly. Instead, it provides the insured customer with a predetermined cash amount that can be used according to their needs.
The bank said the cover has no waiting period once the policy becomes active and does not require a deductible or co-payment.
Customers are required to notify the insurer or broker within 48 hours of hospital admission when making a claim. Claim documents can be submitted through KCB branches or electronically by email.
KCB said successful claims would be credited to the customer’s account within five working days after approval.
Customers can sign up for the product at KCB branches or through the bank’s mobile application.
The launch comes against a backdrop of low health insurance coverage in Uganda. Figures from the 2024 National Population and Housing Census indicate that only 1.1 per cent of the household population had health insurance, with coverage at 1.6 per cent in urban areas and 0.7 per cent in rural areas.
The Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda has separately reported overall insurance penetration at 0.86 per cent.
KCB said the product is intended to provide financial support to salary earners, self-employed people and workers in the informal sector who may lose income when illness or hospitalisation prevents them from working.
Miranda Bageine Musoke, KCB Bank Uganda’s head of retail banking, said unexpected health emergencies can disrupt household finances beyond the cost of medical treatment.
“Our customers do not experience their financial lives in separate compartments,” Musoke said. She added that KCB MyCare was designed to make insurance protection affordable and accessible through channels customers already use.
John Katende, chief distribution officer at Jubilee Life Insurance Company of Uganda, said partnerships between banks and insurers could help expand access to insurance.
“Closing the protection gap requires us to rethink how insurance reaches customers,” Katende said, noting that working with banks can make insurance products easier for customers to access.
The KCB-Jubilee arrangement is an example of bancassurance, a model in which banks distribute insurance products through their physical branches and digital platforms on behalf of insurance companies.