Niger and NEM insurance companies have paid N9.55 billion as claims to their policy holders from 2020 to date.
While Niger Insurance paid N1.15 billion, NEM paid N8.4 billion for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2020, an increase of 15 per cent against N7.3 billion achieved in 2019.
Mr Edwin Igbiti, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Niger said they were also working on liquidating its real estate assets to further alleviate the plight of its policy holders.
According to him, the firm would not relent efforts in meeting the expectations of its customers.
“In addition to meeting our commitments of our policy holders, we have created customer engagement forum to address customers’ complaints.
“This have been very effective in addressing concerns and enquires, especially, in the present status of the company and management initiatives, ” Igbiti said.
He emphasised that the company would remain a responsible and committed corporate organisation.
The managing director assured its stakeholders that all obligations, especially in the area of payment claims, would be met in line with the provisions of insurance practices.
Consequently, the company was able to pay claims and benefits totalling N1.7 billion in 2019 as against N1.6 billion paid in 2018.
The management of the firm said it has been aggressive in its efforts to unlock capital through restructuring of its investment portfolio while divesting from under-performing asset classes.
Also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NEM, Dr Fidelis Ayebae, said at the company’s 51st Annual General Meeting held on Thursday in Lagos that the net claims expenses of N6.05 billion was incurred during the review compared with N3.9 billion posted in the comparative period of 2019.
“The net claims ratio for the period under review was 27 per cent as against that of 2019 that was 21 per cent,” he said.
Ayebae noted that #EndSARS protests led to an increase in claim applications owing to the vandalisation of properties across various locations.
He added that the company posted a gross premium of N22 billion as against N19.8 billion achieved in the preceding year 2019.
The net premium earned during the period under review was N15.8 billion and 25 per cent increase over the preceding period of 2019 which recorded N12.6 billion.
Ayebae also noted that the group’s profit after tax stood at N5.08 billion in contrast with N2.4 billion recorded in 2019, recording a significant increase of 112 per cent.
“Though the interest rate in commercial paper crashed, the company’s management was proactive enough to take the advantage of other investment opportunities to generate an income on investment of N1.004 billion against the previous income on investment of N878.2 million in 2019,” he said.
The chairman commended the company for an outstanding performance in the year under review in spite of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation rate and exchange rate, among others in the economy.
Speaking on the 2021 business outlook, Ayebae assured the shareholders that the company remains well positioned for enhanced performance.
“The company has adopted policies which are prudent at this time to grow its market share by leveraging extensively on its robust technology infrastructure and maintain a healthy balance sheet,” he said.
Also speaking, the company’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Tope Smart, said despite the difficult terrain of 2020, the company showed resilience and was able to post impressive results.
On the recapitalisation of the sector, Smart said the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) divided the exercise into two phases.
“With regards to the issue of recapitalisation, NAICOM having looked at the impact of the COVID-19 on the recapitalisation of the insurance industry decided to break the exercise into two phases.
“Insurance companies were required to meet up with 50 per cent of their required capital by Dec. 31 2020, while full compliance was scheduled to be attained by Sept 30.
“We met the first phase by capitalising our share premium and part of our retained earnings to bring our paid-up capital to N5.02 billion.
“This was achieved through the issuance of bonus shares to all existing shareholders as at middle of December.
“Suffice to say that the recapitalisation exercise has now been suspended as a result of the court injunction,” he said.
Commenting on the company’s performance, Smart noted that all the performance indices came out positive during the period under review.
“Shareholders’ funds’ grew by 30 per cent to N18.4 billion from N14 billion in 2019.
“Our profit during the period grew significantly from N2.4 billion to N5.1billion, a growth of 112 per cent,” he added.
