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Law Union and Rock Insurance Grows Profit by 68% Law Union & Rock Insurance Plc, one of the General Business Underwriting companies in Nigeria at its 49th annual general meeting held in Lagos recently, announced 66.8 percent growth in its profit. The Company’s Chairman, Mr. Remi Babalola, said this was made possible despite the fragility of the economy in 2017. He said in spite of the odds, the company was able to break through all hurdles to pay dividend to its shareholders. He said during the period under review, Law Union & Rock Insurance, grew its profit by 66.8%. According to him, in its overall performance during the period, the company recorded good performance with 8% growth in its top line over the figure from the previous year. “A significant contribution to the profit came from the Company’s investment income. The Gross Premium Written stood at N4.252billion compared to N3.936billion recorded in 2016. The Profit before tax of N1.099billion was achieved compared to N659million recorded in 2016 which indicates a steady performance improvement of our Company. Total assets grew by 16.9% to N10.031billion from N8.58billion posted in 2016 financial year with a 28.6% growth in Shareholders’ Funds from N5.03billion to N6.47bilion. “The company also recorded a giant feat in its general reserves with retained earnings of N704m
from accumulated loss of N24m recorded in 2016. In recognition of this performance, the Company declared a cash dividend of 4Kobo per share for the financial year�. Babalola stated. He assured shareholders that the company is stronger, better, bigger and more than ever before; with one of the highest ratings in Claim Paying Ability (CPA) in the industry. The Chairman also presented the new Executive Director, Technical/Operations,Mr Olasupo Sogelola and Mr. Kunle Aluko (nonexecutive director)to the shareholders. Both appointments have been approved by the regulator, the National Insurance Commission(NAICOM.). Also speaking, Managing Director of the company, Mr. Jide Orimolade said the company, will not relent in delivery of the best service to the customers. According to him, the loyalty of the customers were very instrumental to the consistent growth of the company’s topline in the past few years which has enable the company to eliminate its accumulated loss and be able to cross to a positive retained earnings in 2017. The shareholders present at the event were in happy mood as three retiring directors -Mr. Remi Babalola (Board of Directors Chairman), Mr. Obinna Onunkwo and Mrs. Funmi Ekundayo were re-elected for another three Universal Insurance Appoints Paulinus Offorzor ED-Technical Operations.
Universal Insurance Appoints New ED Technical Universal Insurance Plc, has announced the appointment of Mr. Paulinus Offorzor as the Executive Director, Technical Operations of the company. This has been confirmed by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM). The appointment came on the backdrop of the NAICOM’s directive that insurers should have an executive director in charge of technical operations by which the board of the company, had forwarded his name to NAICOM as the nominee for the position. Prior to his new appointment as the Executive Director, Offorzor was the Deputy General Manager, DGM, (Technical & Enterprise Risk Management) of the Company. Speaking on the appointment, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Insurance, Ben Ujoatuonu, said Offorzor ’s appointment and has been confirmed by the NAICOM. Offorzo is a graduate of insurance from The
Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu. He holds a Bachelor ’s Degree in Economics (B.Sc. (Hons) from Imo State University, Owerri and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) majoring in Insurance and Risk Management from Esut Business School. He is also an associate member of several professional bodies including Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (ACII), The Certified Pension Institute of Nigeria (CPIN) and Chartered Institute of Administration (CIA) He started his insurance career with Intercontinental Assurance Co Ltd in 1995 and has worked in several other companies within the insurance industry before joining Universal Insurance Plc as the Head (Technical & Enterprise Risk Management. Paulinus was the General Manager / Chief Executive Officer Generation Insurance Brokers Limited before his appointment in Universal Insurance. He is married with children.
Operators Highlight Challenges, Potential to Pension Sector Growth Stories by Ebere Nwoji Pension Fund Administrators, (PFAs) the managers and administrators of accumulated funds from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), have said that in their efforts to ensure smooth running of the scheme to guarantee happy and stress free retirement for Nigerian workers, they are confronted by many challenges . The managers, however said despite these challenges, the scheme has a lot of potential, which if well harnessed, would build huge investible funds for the economy and make retirement a happy period for Nigerians. The Chairman, Pension Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), the umbrella body of PFAs in Nigeria, Mrs. Ronke
Adedeji, who stated this at a recent media retreat organised by the National Pension Commission(PenCom) in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, highlighted some of the challenges as poor knowledge of the scheme by the general public, lack of information and wrong perception of the scheme, confusion among members of the public between the old and new scheme, lack of public awareness on their rights and the scheme requirements and low adoption of self-help platforms by the public . Others are the fact that despite huge investments in technology by industry players, a high percentage of clients remain comfortable with the old, manual way of doing things as well as failure to communicate changes in customer data to
PFAs leading to difficulties in locating some clients. According to the PenOp Chairman, there are also challenges of failure to adopt the scheme by many employers and employees as well as lack of contributors’ attention to the scheme until their day of retirement. She also cited the challenge of lack of funding for the scheme due to non- remittances. Furthermore, she pointed to high cost challenge, noting that achieving the elements of heightened service delivery comes at a significant investment to industry players. While also identifying changes in customer data not communicated to PFAs, which lead to difficulties in locating the clients as a major chal-
lenge, Adedeji, who is also the Managing Director Leadway Pensure, highlighted other prospects in pension sector saying with good public enlightenment through better information dissemination by the media, efforts by operators and the regulator to deepen knowledge on pension matters will increasingly improve service delivery and yield better result. She further said that good pension system like the CPS, will provide multiple -fund platform for the people,explaining that offering clients the flexibility to determine the level of risk their accounts will be subjected to will further individualise the service being rendered between contributor and PFA.
FACTS AND FIGURES
L-R:ExecutiveDirector, Business Development and Strategy, Mrs KemiOluwasina;ManagingDirector,Mr.UmarSandaMairami;IndependentDirector, Mrs.MosunBelo-Olosuga,and Executive Director Business Development and Investment Mr. Kabila Ahmed Tijani all of Premium Pensions Ltd, at the annual general meeting of the company held in Abuja ... recently
Goldlink Insurance Shareholders Back Rights Issue In its bid to inject life into the operations of the company, the interim board of Godlink Insurance Plc, has secured the nod of its shareholders to recapitalise the company to enable it operate in full capacity and compete effectively in the insurance market. This was granted at the 20th annual general meeting of the company held in Lagos recently. At the meeting, shareholders permitted the board under special business to among other things carry out actions such as: Issuing up to 4,600,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each from the company’s share capital by way of rights issue in such proportion, at such time, for such consideration and upon such terms and conditions as the directors may deem fit subject to obtaining approval of relevant regulatory authorities; that the directors be authorised to raise additional capital by way of private/ special placement
through the issuance of 2,000,000,000 irredeemable, convertible preference shares of 50 kobo each on such terms and conditions that shall be determined by the directors subject to obtaining the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities. The company’s interim board Chairman, Mohammed Bintube, who thanked shareholders for their patience and long waiting to see the survival of the company, assured that challenges confronting the company were already coming to an end. He however urged the shareholders to ensure they take up their rights when the rights offer starts. The latest resolution by both the board and investors in the company was taken, six years, after the sack of the company’s former board and the regulator’s appointment of interim new board and management. The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) , had following anomalies and
misstatements discovered in audited financial statements of Gold Link Insurance for the year ended December 31, 2011, sacked the board and management replacing them with interim board and management who have been mandated to bring the operations of the company back to life Since then, the new board, has been struggling to-reposition the company but has not fully achieved the desired objective. Acting Managing Director of the company, Funke Moore, said with the proposed lifeline, the management is optimistic that there will be light at the end of the tunnel in the company. “It is the hope of the board and management that the recapitalisation plan, which has received the approval of NAICOM, will be acceptable by the shareholders, this will enable us recover the lost confidence by our customers and also help us get new clients to enable
the company bounce back to its former position as a leading insurance company in Nigeria,� she said According to Moore, despite the current position of the company in the market, it still writes premiums in excess of N1billion and is meeting its obligations She noted that the goodwill of the company, the brand equity and the kind of people (employees) the firm still retains, are its huge assets. According to her, the company, will be raising about N3.3 billion through rights issue as well as preference shares to put back the company in its rightful place in the industry. Addressing the shareholders at the meeting, interim board chairman, Mohammed Bintube, thanked shareholders for their patience and long waiting to see the survival of the company and assured that challenges confronting the company were already coming to an end.