Standard Alliance Insurance Plc has entered into a partnership with Uber, a company that connects riders with drivers, to make moving around the city comfortable and affordable for its clients and staff who would need to be on the road to meet appointments.
In a statement by the Head, Corporate Communications, Nelson Egboboh, the underwriting company explained that it went into the partnership due to its desire to help its clients and members of staff get ultimate value for their hard-earned money which they had hitherto been spending to meet up with the costly fares being charged by other transport service providers.
According to the statement, Uber will be offering a free first ride of up to N5,000 when signing up for the service using the promo code SAINSURANCE. Uber offers reliable and affordable rides at the touch of a button.”
While noting that this free offer was for first time riders only, the statement explained that to enjoy the service, “the individual will have to download the Uber app on his mobile devices and sign up with SAINSURANCE code indicating his location and destination,” stating that “driver-partners are at multiple locations which makes it easy for them to reach any interested person within few minutes.
Two months after the expiration of the ultimatum issued to the 59 insurance firms in the country to clear all backlog of outstanding claims, the industry regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), is yet to make public the level of compliance with the directive. Enquiries by The Nation at the NAICOM office met a brick wall as its officials, for over one month, declined to make any comment on the issue.
Spokesperson for the regulator, Rasaaq Salami failed to respond to questions raised on the issue. Salami, who had earlier promised to respond to this reporter’s email never did as at the time of going to press.
NAICOM, acting on the Insurance Act 2003, had issued a September 30 deadline to operators in the industry in default to pay up claims to the insuring public, a situation that has made the general public perceive the sector in bad light.
In NAICOM’s circular which shows an admission of non-settlement of claims as a major problem in the industry, Kari stated: “You would recall that the Commission collated claims details from all insurance companies and complains on delayed and unsettled claims from members of the insuring public in its efforts to verify the persistent complains of the consumers of insurance about an unsavory attitude of the providers that has brought the image of the industry to disrepute.
In the circular signed by NAICOM Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Karl dated July 6, 2015 and titled, “Claims settlement and the image of the insurance industry”, the Commission threatened that erring insurance companies shall be sanctioned with full application of punitive sections of the Insurance Act including but not limited to sections 8 (1) (m), 70(1)(b) and 70(2) without further recourse.
These Sections not only stipulate the approved settlement period for claims, but also provides for punitive measures that may be taken against a defaulting firm. For instance, Section 70 (1) of the Act states that “subject to Section 69 of the Act, in every case where a claim is made in writing by the insured or any other party entitled thereto under insurance policy, the insurer shall- (a) where he accepts liability, settle the claim not later than 90 days after the insurance of discharge voucher; (b) where any claim remains unpaid as provided in (a) above, the insured may request the Commission to effect the payment from the statutory deposit of the insurer and the Commission shall have power to effect such payment ; or (c) where he does not accept liability, deliver a statement in writing stating the reason for disclaiming such liability to the person making the claim or his authorised representative not later than 90 days from the date on which the person delivered his claim to the insurer.”
Furthermore, Sub Section 2 of the same Act prescribes punitive measure for a defaulting insurer: “any insurer who contravenes this section commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine of N500, 000.”
Stakeholders in the industry, who declined to be named for fear of being seen as “antagonistic” to the Commission, regret that two months after the expiration of the deadline, and in spite of the threat by the regulator to evoke the full application of punitive sections of the insurance Act including but not limited to sections 8 (1) (m), 70(1)(b) and 70 (2) without further recourse, from October 1, 2015, is now proving to be a toothless bulldog. Such acts, they further said, would make operators belief that heavens would not fall if they fall foul of any other infraction in future.
Investigations by The Nation revealed that insurers still delay or refuse to pay claims as at when due. For instance, an insurance firm (name withheld) failed to pay an insured following expiration of the policy at full term. His policy had reached its full term since last June but the company failed to honor his request that he should be paid sums due going by the policy. He was only paid in November following intervention by The Nation.
Lasaco Assurance Plc has donated modern Information and Communications Technology equipment worth millions of naira to the Federal College of Dental Technology and Therapy, Enugu.
This was made known in a statement from the firm by its Group Managing Director, Sola Ladipo-Ajayi.
Ladipo-Ajayi said its definition of insurance goes beyond insuring life, goods, and other assets, adding that supporting education was another form of insurance with good dividend for the society at large.
He said that education was relevant and its funding should not be left to the government alone.
Ladipo-Ajayi stated that the ability of any nation to make giant strides was tied to sound and quality education of its citizenry.
We are motivated to donate ICT equipment because of our belief in what it can do. Our successes as a company in the recent times received great inputs from application of technology to our operations, he said.
After 21 years of meritorious service, the Managing Director of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Wale Onaolapo has bowed out of the company. He will be succeeded by Olaotan Soyinka, who until this appointment, was Executive Director, Technical. His appointment takes effect from January 2, 2016.
According to a statement signed by the company’s Head of Corporate Affiars, Segun Bankole. Onaolapo joined the company from inception in 1994 as an Assistant General Manager, Technical, and rose through the ranks.
It read: “Onaolapo was appointed to the Board of the company in 2004 when he became an Executive Director and later rose to the position of the Managing Director in 2008.
“He was part of the management team that took the company’s Shareholders’ Fund from N20 million at inception to over N4 billion to date while growing the balance sheet size from N25 million to N9.6 billion as at the end of third quarter of 2015.
“The Gross Premium Income of the company grew from N36 million in 1995 to over N7 billion in 2014. Under his leadership, the company executed two successful rights issue in 2011 and 2015 respectively in shoring up the capital base of the company.”
The Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) has embarked on closer interaction with the informal sector to ensure stability and growth for businesses, its Director-General, Sunday Thomas, has said.
He made this known while speaking at the conference/fair in Lagos. The event had market women, traders, artisans and non-governmental organisations (NGO) in attendance.
He said that insurance is a viable tool for mitigating losses among the less privileged.
He noted that the conference/fair is their first ever on Micro Insurance subsector and also their first deliberate effort to reach out to the informal sector of our economy.
He stressed that the insurance industry regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has sets out the framework, road map, market and regulatory strategic directions for the operation of micro insurance in Nigeria.
He said: “This conference is put together by the Micro Insurance committee of the Nigeria’s Insurers Association. Our aim is to bring together all stakeholders concerned with micro insurance in Nigeria with the overall objective of ensuring that both the demand side and the supply side of micro insurance are in sync together.
“It is also meant to create awareness for our member’s micro insurance products for informal sector of the economy. It is common knowledge that insurance culture is very low among the informal sector and it would take deliberate effort like this to win the confidence of this sector.
“The country diagnostic study says less than 1 per cent of the adult population in Nigeria have access to a voluntary insurance policy. Nigeria is among the least countries in terms of insurance contribution to GDP which is around 0.72 per cent.”
He said the sector is regarded as “a grossly untapped opportunity” because we have not yet appealed to the informal sector which constitute over 80 per cent of the Nigerian population.
“For the NIA, the obvious way forward is to through closer interaction with this sector, intensive capacity building and greater expertise in micro insurance, providing unique micro insurance services, development of people friendly products, and improved innovative distributive system.”
“Micro insurance is targeted at the informal sector and the low income masses. It is the most veritable too for mitigating losses from unexpected accidents and disasters. Low income groups are invariably exposed to innumerable risks. Micro insurance works on the phenomenon of risk transfer mechanism characterized by low premiums and low coverage limits.
“As an industry we will continually seek for opportunities to court the friendship of this sector. For us the future of our industry most probably lies in what we do with this sector and how they the sector accepts our products and services. We are optimistic that the relationship we are starting today will continue to blossom and get stronger”, he noted.
Retirement Savings’ Accounts (RSAs) cannot be designated as bank accounts, the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), has said.
PENCOM made the clarification in reaction to claims by the Rivers State Council of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) which had threatened to embark on industrial action should the Commission implement the yet to be released “Guidelines on Unilateral Withdrawals from Voluntary Contribution from Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) by Contributors.”
In a statement signed by its Head of Communications, PENCOM, said “there are indications that some Contributors may be confusing RSAs to be the same as Bank Accounts. RSAs are not the same as Bank Accounts, so PenCom needs to discourage this practice.”
He said that Voluntary Contributions into RSAs, “are meant to boost Contributors’ final pension and not a savings account that could be drawn at will.”
The Guidelines, Onuora added, “will boost Government’s Fight Against Financial Terrorism and Money Laundering, and nip in the bud the dangers that could arise should Contributors decide to use RSAs to launder dirty money.”
Onuora said the Guidelines remain a Draft, but stated that “the Commission will expose it to stakeholders for their input in due course.”
He urged the TUC, Rivers State Council to harmonise its position on the issue and make useful input into the Guidelines, saying since the TUC is represented on the Board of PenCom, the workers could use this channel to address their grievances.
The Rivers State Council of the Trade Union Congress had noted that the guidelines still in the making, provided that: “any person making Voluntary Contributions to his/her RSA in addition to the statutory contributions made by him and his employer, may withdraw up to 20% of the balance standing in the Voluntary Contributions portion of the RSA, not more than once in every four years.”
Standard Alliance Insurance Plc, has paid a consolidated claim of N1.5 billion in its nine months of operation in 2015, Company Head, Corporate Communications, Nelson Egboboh, has said.
Egboboh, who made this known to journalist in Lagos, said the underwriting firm received a ‘BBB’ rating from the South Africa-based Global Credit Rating (GCR) in recognition of its ability to settle verified claims promptly.
He said a breakdown of the N1.5 billion consolidated sum indicates that the firm was responsible for a total of N801.1million claims, while the balance of N714.2million was paid out by its life subsidiary, Standard Alliance Life Assurance Limited.
The claims which were paid out between January and end of September this year, are for policyholders spread across fire and special peril, aviation, marine, motor, oil and energy, general accident, bond and engineering classes of general insurance, as well as the group and individual life policies.
He said a total consolidated sum of N2billion was paid out by the company and its life subsidiary as claims to affected general and life policyholders during the same period in 2014.
He explained that the company’s commitment to settle genuine claims to the tune of N1.5billion despite the pervasive economic hard time, was in keeping faith with the organisation’s renewed commitment towards settling claims to affected policyholders.
He said the company recognises that the best tool to win and retain customers is its good record of a sound claims administration.
FBN Insurance Limited, an FBN Holdings company in partnership with Sanlam of South Africa, has donated a dialysis machine to Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos to boost patients’ access for medicals.
Managing Director, FBN Insurance, Val Ojumah, who made this known at the commissioning of the Machine at the Gbagada General Hospital, said: “As a company belonging to FirstBank, it is important that we support government in developmental programmes of this type.”
The donation which is part of activities to mark the underwriting firm’s 5th anniversary, was borne out of its passion to care for the poor and vulnerable in the society who may not be able to pay for the full cost of dialysis, he said.
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) Plc, has recorded a 120 per cent growth in its Profit After Tax for the third quarter ended last September 30, when compared with the corresponding period in the preceeding financial year.
The unaudited results, which have been presented to shareholders by the Nigerian Stock Exchange, showed that Profit After Tax rose from N176.78 million during the nine months ended September 2014, to N389.74 million, this year.
The firm also recorded an improvement in its gross premium income during the period under review, having increased revenue in this area from N3.87 billion to N4.93 billion, despite the increasing competition in the industry and difficult operating terrain.
Further details of the result revealed a 64 per cent growth in underwriting profit, as it posted N1. 25 billion when compared with N768. 3 for the third quarter ended 30th September, 2014.
CHI Managing Director, Eddie Efekoha, attributed the modest results to high premium the firm has continued to place on customer service and the attention given to prompt claims settlement.
The amount expended on claims by the company during the period rose to N902.2 million from N826.14 million spent during the corresponding period in 2014.
Efekoha said the firm is desirous of maintaining excellent customer service reputation, as it currently leverages on technology to ensure seamless transactions through the deployment of e-payment channels, whilst also engaging more with numerous customers through the social media platforms.
Expectations are high among chieftains of the Nigerian insurance sector following the appointment of the new Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun. The chieftains want the minister to help with the passage of Insurance Bill, which has been at draft level for long.
They are looking up to her to restructure the economy and put in place effective policy measures that would deepen insurance penetration, enforce compulsory insurances and marine insurance, among others.
The sector, like others within the financial system, is being regulated by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and directly under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance.
The sector, which has a record premium income of N300 billion, has been affected by the recent foreign exchange crisis. It has reduced the sector’s revenue from number two position in Africa, to four in terms of volume, and reduced insurance penetration to one per cent.
• Thomas
The Director-General, Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA), Sunday Thomas, said he is excited that the nation now has a minister of finance, who will be responsible for the activities within the insurance sector, adding that he expected the minister to end waste in government assets by imbibing insurance culture.
He stressed the need for her to quickly deal with the foreign exchange situation, pointing out that Nigeria’s image on global insurance map is low because of the exchange rate problem. He said the sector has dropped from being the second biggest in Africa to fourth, falling behind South Africa, Morocco and Egypt.
He is, however, optimistic that there is room for improvement, stressing that through good policy measures, the situation could improve.
He said practioners also expect that the minister will look into the problem of non-payment of premium, insurance of government assets, the Group Life Insurance Policy (GLIP) for government workers, manage micro economic variables, such that citizens have more money in their pockets and help in fast-tracking the passage of the insurance law.
He said: “I listened to her when she appeared before the Senate; no doubt, she is a visionary woman. We as insurers, expect that not only will the issue of asset acquisition be uppermost in her agenda, but also asset maintenance and the deployment of insurance as a mechanism for maintenance of state assets. This I believe will be good for our economy at this point in time.
“We have had incidents where assets acquired by government were destroyed and were either replaced by taxpayers’ money or never replaced at all because they could not generate new funds to replace them, and therefore, we lost their use. We believe that proper structuring of the nation’s finances will go a long way in curbing waste in the system.”
He saiod a lot of people are hungry, believing that the problem can be solved through economic restructuring and effective policy measures that can put more money in the pockets of the people. “She is not going to do it alone, it will be in conjunction with other ministers. I believe it will assist and insurance too will become more interesting,” he stated.
On the Insurance bill, he explained that it is an executive bill, which has been at a draft state for a while.
“We believe it will be uppermost in her agenda. I participated on the committee that drafted the bill. There are aspects of it that we believe can fast track the sector and also empower the regulator to carry out effective oversight functions.”
“We also want her to look into marine business as she is also responsible for supervision of the Nigeria Custom Service. We are experiencing huge gap in the area of marine insurance. Section 67 of the Insurance Act, 2003 makes insurance of imports compulsory. Any import must be insured with company domiciled in Nigeria and we hope that she will make sure that every good that comes into this country carry the genuine cover.”
According to the Director- General, to aid the customs, operators have extended their industry portal, the Nigeria Insurance Industry Database (NIID) to cover and checkmate fake marine certificates.
Thomas also noted that just before the end of the last administration, the former minister of finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, held a summit with the sector for the first time and showed readiness to help move the sector forward, saying that agenda were set and committees were formed.
He urged the new minister to continue from where Dr. Okonjo-Iweala stopped and improve on the modalities laid on ground.
The Managing Director, LASACO Assurance Plc, Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi said he has confidence in the minister, stating his acquaintance with her on an insurance matter when she was Ogun State Commissioner for Finance.
Ladipo-Ajayi, who is also a past chairman of the Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA), said he had interactions with her ministry on some insurance issues. He said she was very cooperative on the matter and helped resolve the issues amicably.
He believes that in the light of the fact that she understands insurance, she will help grow the sector. “I believe that she will help drive insurance penetration in the country and help with the passage of the Insurance Bill, which is consolidation of insurance laws among other things,’’ he said.
Staco Insurance Plc Managing Director, Shakiru Oyefeso, on his part, appealed to the minister to promote insurance in her policies. He expressed belief in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, whom according to him, understands the need for insurance in the country.
He added that the former Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, who is now the Minster of Power, Works and Housing also understands the benefits of insurance.
He pointed out that insurance is a way to fight against poverty and any government that knows his onions will boost insurance penetration in the country.
“Government should enforce compulsory insurance to curtail national waste. It must look inwards and not continue to dip hands into their running funds when there are losses. Government should imbibe insurance in all its activities so that it can mitigate losses that Nigerians suffer. The amount of premium that will be paid will not kill them. This will in turn grow the insurance companies and also create employment,” he said.
He stressed that risk management is crucial for any government, adding that insurers have good personnel that can help in its risk management.
