Insurance Industry’s Premium Rises 10% To N560bn

The sum of N560bn has been generated by the Nigerian insurance industry from businesses written in the 2021 financial period.

The outgoing Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association, Ganiyu Musa, revealed this on Thursday during its 51st annual general meeting in Lagos.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Old Mutual Nigeria Life Insurance Company Limited, Olusegun Omosehin during the meeting emerged as the new chairman of NIA.

Musa said, “Notwithstanding these challenges, the insurance industry continues to perform its statutory role of financial intermediation and business restoration.

“The volume of business written by member companies grew from N508bn in 2020 to about N560bn in 2021, representing an increase of 10 per cent.”

Musa said the association, in collaboration with the National Insurance Commission, had embarked on various initiatives to deepen insurance penetration.

He said the initiatives such as financial inclusion, micro-insurance, the association’s NIIP initiative and other strategic market development initiatives were expected to increase insurance uptake by the public.

Musa said the insurance industry recapitalisation exercise, which was incepted by the National Insurance Commission in May 2019, remained unresolved due to the court cases initiated by some concerned parties.

He said the association was not a party to the lawsuit, and it was its expectation that the cases would be expeditiously dispensed with.

He further stated, “We are also concerned about the uncertainty the delays have created, especially among our critical stakeholders, and we appeal to the litigants to sheathe their swords so that whatever the issues in contention are can be resolved through constructive engagement for a swift end to the matter in the interest of the insuring public and all stakeholders.”

He noted that the definition of capital for the purpose of the recapitalisation exercise was one of the major issues faced by member companies.

The definition of capital as encapsulated in the Insurance Act 2003 and the commission’s interpretation of the same had fallen far behind best practice in insurance and financial sector regulation and would be injurious to the member companies, he said.

He said, “The association subsequently engaged the commission on the need to find an acceptable definition of capital in line with what obtains in other jurisdictions. Presentations were subsequently made by NIA, NAICOM, and KPMG at the various sessions and the agreed position was presented to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning for inclusion in the Finance Act.

“We are delighted to report that with the President’s assent to the Finance Act 2021. We now have a more acceptable definition of capital.”