22 — Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015
The Nigerian insurance market is largely untapped and has tremendous growth potential with penetration at 0.4% of GDP.
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Loss of employment insurance kicks off By Rosemary Onuoha
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he National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, has given Anchor Insurance Company Limited and Universal Risk Management and Actuarial Services approval to jointly introduce a new product for workers called URFANS Loss of Employment Insurance Scheme. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Anchor Insurance, Mr. Ademayowa Adeduro said the product URFANS would soon be officially unveiled to the public. The company noted that the original concept of the product was borne out of intensive research, market survey and test marketing locally and abroad since 2011 by Universal Risk Management and Actuarial Services Limited, an indigenous actuarial service consulting firm. It said it relied on the competence and relationship between URMAAS Limited USA, PolySystems, Inc USA and URMAAS Limited Nigeria to make a success story from the product. URMAAS began a research work on how to address the increasing menace of job insecurity and spiral effects of loss of employment in Nigeria. Adeduro explained that the new product provides cover against sudden loss of employment income for a reasonable period of time that the victim could regain employment and flow of income resumes. “This product provides benefit for a member who lost his employment through no fault of his. LoEIS will continue to provide financial cushion against income losses from temporary unemployment.” In the event of loss of employment, he said the policy will pay the insured, the salary earned last in the employment for a period of time during which period the member may have regained another employment subject to a maximum period of 24 months. The insured, he explained would get 100 per cent of the monthly salary for the first six months, followed by 75 per cent in the next six months if the employee remains unemployed, 50 per cent will continue for the following six month, while 25 per cent will be paid in the last six months. Chairman, Supreme Adequate Insurance Broker, Mr. Taiwo Akintunde confirmed that his firm is the approved insurance broker for the product. He disclosed that the product will be out on March 5, 2015 and will be opened for subscription from March 9, 2015 from which time workers will begin to enjoy a new lease of rest of mind under the cover of LoEIS. The Managing Director of URMAAS, Mr. Adekunle Fashola said that LoEIS is the outcome of the research work which was packaged to solve the problem of sudden job loss and redundancy resulting to income loss. “Losing job or getting laid off can happen without warning and those affected are usually left in panic, scrambling for money to pay rents, children school fees, mortgages, car loans, cater for daily expenses and other financial obligations. The adverse effect of a job loss, he added could be very devastating and could eventually lead to foreclosures, bankruptcy, bad credit, financial hardships, depression or even death,” the statement added.
C M Y K
INSURAN
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How we intend to use IFC’s £20m convertible loan — Aiico MD
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r. Edwin Igbiti is the Managing Director of Aiico Insurance Plc. He spoke with Favour Nnabugwu on the International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s $20million convertible loan to the firm. He also shed light on the company’s driving force, its magic wand and many more. Excerpts
What is Aiico’s plan on the International Finance Corporation’s $20m convertible loan? Aiico is on a transformation journey to becoming a world class financial services group, providing insurance solutions (life, non-life and health) as well as investment services (pension and assets management) to individuals, households, businesses, corporations and public institutions. The $20million convertible debt raised from the IFC will be deployed to support the company’s strategic objectives that include growing profitable sources of income; establish a competitive advantage in service excellence; drive operational efficiency by automation and develop world class centers of excellence (training and development) in our
core areas of risk management such as actuarial science. The company has an aggressive expansion strategy. Our plan is to rapidly expand our retail presence and footprints in all major cities, urban centers and penetrate communities with population of at least one million. We operate a hub and spoke model for our locations and the plan is to relocate/renovate our regional offices (Lagos, Abuja & PH) within a year with the aim of improving visibility, access and convenience to customers.
The $20 million convertible debt raised from the FC will be deployed to support the company’s strategic objectives
Similarly, our existing branches and retail centres will be refurbished and remodeled to ensure pleasant customer experience. There are plans to open up 11 additional retail centres in strategic locations over the next 18 months. Our objective is to deliver insurance solutions at the doorstep of every Nigerian, while improving public awareness, access and convenience to customers. This is our approach to reaching the large under-served retail segments and improving service standards to our corporate clients across the country. How does the company intend to judiciously make use of the $20m? We plan to complement our brick & mortar strategy, with significant investments in ICT platforms to expand accessibility, convenience and security to customers. We are investing in connectivity infrastructure across all our locations to ensure that transactions are securely done on a real-time basis regardless of the customer’s location. New servers and data recovery apparatus are being acquired to ensure that transactions are seamlessly done while ensuring the highest levels of security to our customers. These ICT investments will also ensure that we have the necessary
Lasaco returns to composite structure
L
asaco Assurance Plc has returned to a composite structure having merged the
Life operations with the General effective from 2015 financial year.
The company said the move is strategic and is aimed at running a seamless insurance
From left: Mr. Ademayowa Adeduro MD/CEO Anchor Insurance; Mr. Samuel Okeleye, URMAAS (Executive Director Operations); Mr. Bimbo Abioye MD/CEO FinTrak Software; Adekunle Fashola MD/CEO of URMAAS; Mr. Taiwo Akintunde Chairman Supreme Adequate Insurance brokers; and Femi Adegbami, Administrator of URFANS LoEIS Secretariat.