Kidnap and Ransom Products Launched at AIG Uganda (now Chartis)
AIG Uganda which will become Chartis Uganda Insurance at the end of 2009, has announced plans to begin offering a kidnap and ransom insurance product upon approval by local Ugandian regulatory authorities.
The policy will cover extortion payments, legal fees and trauma counselling in the event of kidnap.
A few of the sectors that are at high risk in Uganda include NGOs (non-governmental organisations and non-profits), oil companies, and telecommunications. The AIG product was already available in Kenya and South Africa, and AIG U.S. offers companies with expatriates global expatriate kidnap and ransom insurance policies.
With the discovery of oil in the country, in a region that has some pockets of instability, it was crucial to respond to these unique challenges.
Today’s business leaders are charged with breaking new markets and territories. This puts us face-to-face with new challenges such as having to work in politically-unstable regions of which are some of the best drivers for kidnap, ransom or extortion.
AIG works in collaboration with Clayton Consultants Inc., which specialises in the prevention and resolution of a kidnap for ransom, extortion, malicious product tampering and wrongful detention.
Clayton Consultants, a Triple Canopy company, is a crisis management security consultancy offering incident response, security consulting and training services to clients across the globe. Clayton specializes in the prevention and resolution of kidnaps-for-ransom, extortions, malicious product tampering and client risk.
Clayton consultants are experts in the field of crisis resolution with decades of government, military, foreign service and private industry experience. Strategically located around the world, Clayton’s consultants support clients in an advisory capacity based on their security expertise and an intimate knowledge of the local culture. Clayton, collectively has resolved more than 1,500 confirmed kidnap-for-ransom and extortion cases.
Triple Canopy, a security solutions company, acquired Clayton Consultants in 2007.
Mark Courtney, a consultant with Clayton Consultants, said the kidnap for ransom globally is worth $13,000,000,000 and only 50%of kidnappings are reported. While kidnap cases are on the rise around the world, some can be prevented through security measures.
He noted that Africa is beginning to register a rise in kidnap cases to 17%, up from 5% seven years ago.
