Paper Title
Introducing Takaful in Uganda: An Exploratory Study on Acceptability, Possibility and Takaful Model

Abstract
Insurance has been widely used as a risk mitigation tool in our personal lives as well as in business world. It is notdeniable that insurance has become part of our daily lives and thus provides the benefits and protection to uswhen we are unfortunate. However, the concepts of riba (interest), gharar (uncertainty) and mysir (gambling) inherited in insurance principles and practices are prohibited from the Islamic perspective. The Muslim scholarsintroduced takfulto replace the conventional insurance. Tremendously, takaful is at high growing rate andpenetrating into both Muslim and Non-Muslim countries. However, to the extent of our knowledge, there are notakaful operators in Uganda even though it has a fast-rising Muslim population. Thus, the aims of this study are to examine the acceptability andpossibility of offering takaful in Uganda and to propose the most suitable takaful model that should be engaged by thetakaful operators and policy holders. The findings from 108 Muslim andnon-Muslim respondents show thatacceptability of takaful by Ugandans regardless of their being Muslims or non-Muslims is very high and there is possibility thattakaful products can be marketed in Uganda. It seems regardless of the religion, takaful seems to be accepted byUgandans. Moreover, 10 Shari’ahscholarsand 5 consultants opine that hybrid model, i.e. thecombined concept of wakalah and mudarabah will be the most suitable model for Uganda. Hence, future researchshould examine the perception of regulators to introduce takaful and economic viability of the proposed model. Keywords - Acceptability, Possibility, Takaful, Insurance and Uganda.