The Nation Newspaper

Tag: AIICO

  • Children Day: AIICO hosts school on risk management

    In celebration of this year’s Children Day and AIICO Insurance Plc has in line with their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of empowering the Nigerian child, celebrated this year’s Children Day by training students of Helpers International School on risk management including insurance.

    Executive Director, Mr Jide Orimolade, received the students and their teachers who visited the head office of the company in Lagos, as part of their field work research on Risk Management.

    Orimolade said professional risk managers and himself gave the students tutorials on interesting areas of risk management including Insurance, health and safety living amongst other topics.

    He said the students were also taken through a question and answer session as well as refreshments after the training.

    AIICO Insurance is one of the largest Life Insurer commenced operations in 1963, and became a public liability company in 1989. In 1990, the company got listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange  (NSE).

  • AIICO achieves N31.7b premium in Q1

    AIICO Insurance Plc said it has achieved a target of about N31.7 billion premium in its 2014 first quarter (Q1) result.

    Its Executive Director, Technical, Jide Orimolade who disclosed this at the underwriting firm’s Q1 media briefing in Lagos, said in terms of its top-line figure this year and judging by the unaudited results, the firm has been able to meet its target in Q1.

    In terms of claims, he said the firm is mindful of paying claims promptly and has so far paid a ratio of 29 per cent on its General Business, 25 per cent on Individual Life and 15 per cent on Group Life.

    He explained that the Life and General Business yielded cumulatively N8.616 billion in the period under review.

    He said: “A breakdown of the N31.7 billion premium shows that a total of N2.9 billion was generated under the General Business; N1.7 billion was generated for Individual Life, N916 million was generated on Group Life and N3.15 billion on Annuity.

    “With these extracts for the first quarter, it is quite possible to see that we have done well and will possibly continue in the second quarter to translate these into profit for our shareholders. It is however important to note that these are unaudited extracts.”

    Speaking further about Q1, Orimolade said: “We all know that for us to be able to plan, we must have a working budget in place; however the 2014 budget has just been recently approved. For us at AIICO, we have been able to set our target for ourselves and to a large extent, we have been able to perform reasonably well and are set to achieving them, judging from all that has happened in the first quarter so far.

    “Looking at the financial environment in terms of what has happened in the first quarter so far, from the micro insurance point of view, the government has been able to keep the inflation rate down to single digit. In terms of growth, it is about seven per cent right now and this tells us that there are a lot of potentials and opportunities for the insurance industry in the market.

    “On the political terrain, there have been a lot of security issues which has affected us in terms of lives and properties especially in the northern part of the country where the ‘Boko Haram’ situation has become a menace.

    “This also tells us that on our own part, we are expedient and have created an extension in terms of the Fire and Special Peril. Opportunities are there to grow the market. “The recent privatisation of the power holding which has been structured into the DISCOs (Distribution Companies) and GENCOs (Generating Companies) has shown some growth projection in this sector. Their assets will ultimately be insured and it will boost the insurance sector. The new owners will definitely employ, thereby creating opportunity for the Group Life business.

    “On the Micro level, our regulators have been able to assist the industry, the ‘No Premium No Cover’ policy has helped us, the claims in the books of insurance companies have reduced, and there is a boost in cash inflow of most insurance companies. Insurance companies all over the world look at their investment returns and also underwriting profits, so with more cash coming in, there are possibilities of good returns”, he said.

  • CRR hike worsens insurance sector’s woes

    The policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which has led to a hike in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) is counter-productive to the insurance industry as products sale have become difficult, AIICO Insurance has lamented.

    CRR is a portion of banks’ deposits kept with the CBN as reserves that enables it to control the money in circulation to strengthen the naira. It is one of the instruments used by the apex bank to monitor the volume of money in circulation in the country. The Monetary Policy Committee of the CBN has retained Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 12 per cent; CRR on public sector deposits at 75 per cent.

    Others are the increase of the CRR on private sector deposit from 12 per cent to 15 per cent while the liquidity ratio was retained at 30 per cent.

    Head, Strategy, Brand and Corporate Communication, AIICO Insurance Plc, Mr. Olurotimi Aleshinloye, said the regime of punitive interest rate in the country is a great disincentive for investors to access loanable funds to grow their businesses.

    According to him, if the interest rate is low, people will be able to access funds easily and this will bring wealth creation which will then be deployed into asset acquisition, business development, opening of new businesses and creation of new jobs.

    He said interest rate is important to insurance business because it is the cost of fund to an average individual and business.

    He stressed that if Nigerians are not wealthy and their standard of living is stagnant, it will be difficult for insurers to justify insurance.

    The increase in interest rate has not really made people to buy asset, open new offices and employ people as much as they should, he said.

    Aleshinloye said there was, however, light at the dark end of the tunnel as there are other opportunities insurers could derive as a result of the increase in the CRR.

    He said: “Insurers should not be distracted by the increases in CRR. It makes inflation rate to be steady and creates an environment where we can at least plan and make projections.

    “What the government has done with the money they took form commercial banks is redeployed to areas of need like micro insurance and agriculture.

    “So, yes it reduces customers for insurers but government has also injected the funds into real sector area of the economy where insurers can equally tap into.”

  • NAICOM okays Igbiti, AIICO’s MD

    NAICOM okays Igbiti, AIICO’s MD

    The National Insurance Commisssion (NAICOM) has okayed the appointment of Mr Edwin Igbiti as Managing Director of AIICO Insurance Plc.

    In a statement, the firm’s Head, Corporate Affairs Elizabeth Agugoh, said NAICOM, in a letter dated January 28, this year approved the appointment.

    Igbiti’s career spans over two decades. It has inspired AIICO’s continuous and exceptional growth over the years, ranking among the top three insurance companies in the country.

    He is a member, Nigerian Institute of Management, Chartered, (NIMC) and Fellow, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN).

    He holds an MBA from the University of Ado-Ekiti, an Advanced Diploma in Management from the University of Lagos (1997), a Certificate from Chartered Insurance Institute, London and is an alumnus of Howard University Business School, United States.

  • ‘The poor are not benefiting from pension’

    ‘The poor are not benefiting from pension’

    The pension fund is now over N3.8 trillion, but it can become bigger, if the informal sector participates in the scheme, says Managing Director, AIICO Pension Manager Limited, Mr. Lounge Eguarekhide. He tells OMOBOLA TOLU-KUSIMO, in this interview, that the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) will be enhanced, if the government raises the pay of low income earners to enable them cover basic needs and still have something to save.

    How is the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) different from the old one?

    The Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004 establishes the CPS for all Nigerian employees in the private and public sectors. The CPS is absolutely a revolution. I used this word very emphatically because if you look at how people accessed pension in this country under the former arrangement, the defined benefit scheme, you will discover it is, indeed, a revolution. Under the old scheme, government retirees or pensioners were paid pension on a specific calculation after retirement so they know what they will get but it was not well funded by the government. Most pension arrangements in the private sector were also not funded and so you would have pensioners waiting in long queues or there was no record of what their pension is. Most times, they cannot even access the pension because there is no money.

    With the current arrangement of the CPS where it is contributory, the pensioner pays a certain amount which is deducted from the pensioner’s account and it is marked by the employer. The total contribution required is a minimum of 15 per cent. The employer is expected to contribute minimum of 7.5 per centand the employee 7.5per cent. The employer could choose to contribute the entire 15 per cent or could choose to weigh the percentage contribution from the employee. But there is a contribution that happens every month and that contribution goes to a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) of which AIICO is one. The PFA does not actually receive the money. It goes to a Pension Fund Custodian (PFC) who then informs the pension administrator that money has been contributed for its management by its contributor, and the pension manager goes and invests the money in approved investment areas or sectors. Now this shows that there is a separation of roles, the contributor appoints the PFA, the PFAs appoints its custodian and all of these activities are supervised by one regulator, PenCom. It wasn’t this way in the past.

    I would like to say that PenCom has done a very fantastic job since the inception of the PRA 2004 because we have had a structured contribution management, well supervised investment management, adequate regulation and to cap all that off is that you have a very organised process of the contributor accessing their benefit at the time the benefit becomes due. The contributor is notified by the PFA six months before retirement and is advised to prepare his or her document. Once these documents are prepared, the documents are sent for approval to PenCom at the point of retirement. This should not take more than two weeks if all the documents are intact and the retiree gets paid. The retiree gets paid every month and not later than the 24th of every month. There are no long queues because your money goes straight to your bank account. It is very organised and that is in my view, a revolution when you compare it to what it used to be.

    What does the 2013 Pension Reform Bill pending at the National Assembly seek to address and what is your take on it?

    My view on the pension reform bill is that there is no process that cannot be improved. We all have our imperfections as human beings and as long as we live on this earth, there will always be room for us to improve. One of the areas the bill seeks to address is a situation where the pension Act can be more far reaching.

    A good example is the current Act; the PRA 2004 which describes private sector contributors as employers that have a minimum of five employees. The Act says that you can join if you have three or less employees. They are trying to draw in participants in what is largely described as the informal sector.

    The regulator has also tried to see whether the percentage contribution from employer and employee can increase because many times people have said that the benefits are not lucrative for the retiree. But in my own view, that complaint is misplaced because if you had only eight years to accumulate your contributions, the benefit of compounding would be much less than if you have say 20 years.

    In my view, I think it is still early days and if people give it time, they will get more benefits. As manager of the funds, we will be able to invest more in instruments that will generate more improved return as time goes on. The bill also tries to address the transition arrangement between the old defined benefit scheme and the new one by putting all of those transitory departments directly under the supervision PenCom in a very active way. The bill is ambitious also by prescribing that states and local governments sign up to the CPS compulsorily. But I don’t think that is democratically practical and I don’t know how legal it is but I am also not a lawyer so I cannot really tell if it will work or not. The PRA 2004 is for the federal civil servants and those in the Federal Capital Territory as well as private sector organisations that have a minimum of five employees each. Now, the Bill describes the federal civil service in the FCT, private sector employers of minimum of three and also includes all states and local governments.

    There is an outcry from the employers as a result of the proposed increase in contributions in the new bill. What is your view on this?

    I think that we should take things slowly. If we have people contributing 15 per cent, 7.5 each and the compliance rate is at best 50-55 per cent if at all and you now try and increase the rate, what do you expect to happen? It will increase non-compliance. It has been expressed during the hearing on the reform at the National Assembly and most people are of the view that we should maintain the rate and just try and drive compliance. For employers who choose to go beyond the minimum 15 per cent, they can do collective bargaining and decide voluntarily to do a higher rate rather than make it compulsory and then make a lot of people fall under the non-compliance bar.

    Expectation is high among operators to get the informal sector on board just as PenCom gets set to release guidelines on it. What are your plans on the informal sector?

    I don’t think that the informal sector is a question of guidelines but a question of reality. I have said this to my management team and at a forum where it has been discussed with PenCom, listening. I have also expressed my views in writing. I think that our economy is very weak. People don’t get paid very good salaries. So just talking about the informal sector by using numbers would not work. The popular analysis is that there are 80 million workers and only five million have signed up while the remaining 75 million have not signed up. The way it works is that people will buy what they need and if they don’t need it you can’t force them to buy. The fact that you don’t have the so called 75 million people subscribed to pension arrangement means that it is either they are pressured, they do not have a need for it or they do not believe in it.

    In my view, more than 75 per cent of this 75 million earn subsistence income such that they can’t start a savings programme. It does not make any logical sense for somebody who earns N18,000 and has to pay rent and send his children to school to subscribe to a pension plan. I don’t think that we need to reinvent the wheel. I think that what we need to do is to drive compliance from the formal sector. There are a lot of things that need to be done for the informal sector to fully come on board. If you look at the Indonesian and Asian model, you will discover that they have driven compliance by incentivising the contributors that if an informal sector participant makes a contribution, the government matches it either 100 per cent or even 200 per cent. So if a vulcaniser manages to put up N2,000 as contribution to pension, the government matches it with say N2,000 and in some cases N4,000. So it is in my interest to find a way to contribute so that I can get access to a price. If that incentive is not there, there is no value for me because with the little money I earn, I have to take care of so many responsibilities. Until you actually improve incomes such that disposable income can cover basic needs and still leave something to spare, I think it is an illusion to think that the number of subscribers from the informal sector will grow. Now, that is speaking very broadly but if we narrow it down, I think that we can segment the informal sector in more details. I think we have many small organisations that do not fall under the CPS now. We have small businesses such as consultants, lawyers, accountants, little enterprises maybe tailors who are fairly organised. They have to find a reason to contribute to this. This is what we the operators are trying to figure out in association with PenCom.

    I think that the number that we will be looking at beyond what we have signed up on the informal side will not be more than another one or two million. That is on the private sector side.

    What is the level of compliance by the states?

    I think there is also a huge market, reasonably huge, we have about seven states, maximum of eight that have subscribed fully to the CPS. The other 28 have not subscribed so what is going to happen to them? Should they not? I think that if they do the numbers properly, they will find out they are short changing their workers if they do not subscribe because gradually your pension liabilities continues to grow and if you don’t fund your pension liabilities, one day the chicken will come home to roost. That is number one.

    Number two; it is an incentive for serious minded state to subscribe to the CPS because in states where they have subscribed to the pension, they found out that in trying to make provision for workers’ pension they will solve the problem also of ghost workers because you have to register to collect your pension and once you register, a ghost cannot have an account and access the pension. So in many cases where there have been registration and maybe one should not be saying this because all sort of things happen in the civil service but once you register under the CPS and payroll is organised such that you make payments to people who have registered, you find out that you have streamlined a lot of the waste in the system. People who are not registered on the payroll in truth are cut off and they have reduced the liabilities of ghost workers just by subscribing to the CPS. If you ask some of the states where the CPS have been embraced. They will tell you that it is an added benefit they have been able to get.

    What does PFA entail?

    I think that people do not have the clear understanding of what this business is. This business is a specialised assets management business but it is broader than an assets management business because we also have to do administration.

    There are lots of support services that you have to invest in and the income you get from managing pension is probably a two-line item. You get your management and administration fees. The business is a game of numbers and skill and until you achieve the minimum economic scale, it can be an absolute nightmare, but that is the reason Pencom introduced the minimum capital of N1 billion so that minimum quality standards can be met by licensed operators and I guess the hope was that if the minimum capital was increased, it will induce operators to combine their business as it made sense but most people have decided to increase their capital to see whether they can carry on and see what happens when contributors are allowed to transfer their account among PFAs because the smaller PFAs believe they can serve some contributors better than the larger PFAs that have a lot of customers and perhaps are not able to perform as far as service delivery is concerned. My experience is that there is often a flight to safety, a flight to size; a flight to more durable structure. I believe this is why the prescription for N1 billion naira recapitalisation by PenCom came up. There were 25 licensed PFAs but today we have 19 and it could shrink even further.

    Are there merger and acquisition talks among the existing 19 operators?

    People would combine their businesses if they find that it makes more sense to have stronger entities than to have control of smaller entities that are not able to deliver service.

    What are your limitations?

    I think that our biggest limitation is really the fact that the investment environment in the country is not right for some of the things you will like to do as a pension operator. It is important to note that pension money is not high risk money. It is money that you must have ready to pay the contributors when their time falls due and so you must invest it very carefully. You cannot take PenCom money to go and build the road that you have no idea how the money is going to come back. But we are human beings who live in an environment and would want to see the improvement of our environment and with pension fund money being long term money, the tendency is to think that it will be used to propel the infrastructural development but it has to be done in a very structured way. I think that as operators, we would like to see infrastructure bonds from government guaranteed for starters. This will make us to know that the user of the funds and the investors can get used to the processes that are required such that once we get more comfortable and we can see budgets coming off the table, we are encouraged to do more.

    The pension money is not supposed to go in one direction and not come back. There were certain projects which I will not want to mention right now that a lot of monies invested on and lost. That can easily happen to pension and these are the greatest challenges we find. As it is, we are limited to money market investment and largely Federal Government bonds. Fixed income is simply a factor of the environment in which we work. We would like to do a lot more creative investing in a secured way but we can only do that in an environment where contract is well respected and the objective is well understood. We want to do a lot real sector investing but the environment is not right for it right now. These are our limitations.

    What are your limitations in the capital market?

    My background is in stock broking, so if anybody would have an understanding of what goes on in the capital market, I would certainly be the one.

    Yes, there is an increased interest investing in the equities market. I think that this year, most pension fund administrators have increased their exposure to the equities market and you will see that the index dipped 47 per cent last year but you need to ask yourself: Where are the new companie? Where should we be investing our money? It comes back to the same real sector debate. We need to have new companies coming on the assembly line. That is how value is created. I started stock broking over 20 years ago and the companies leading the market are still the same Unilever, Nigerian Breweries or Nestle. We haven’t found new champions. Okay, maybe we have got a Dangote here but we need to find a lot of smaller companies that are growing, such that if you invest in the equities market, when it was small, you can grow with it as it matures. That is what happens in a capital market. Look at a company such as Apple, for instance where an investor bought Apple at a time when it was small and grew. That is what you invest money on. You don’t invest money just because you are passionate about a sector. You invest money because there is value to be created and it is that value that we are looking for. I think that it is early days, and what we need to understand in the financial services sector in this economy is that there is a process of development and until you are ready, don’t come out. The pension funds are accumulating and what this means is that people who have genuine projects and genuine development aspirations can have access to it. It means we are beginning to get a pool of long-term funds which can be accessed, but it must be accessed in a structured way for structured objectives.

    You put money in a venture,venture brings good return, the person who provided the money is happy, the person who set up venture goes on to something bigger, then creates employment and for us it is an added advantage because we create employment, we manage new pension accounts, so it is a virtuous circle but we have not gotten there yet. So, we have to proceed cautiously and it will take time. Let us look at the pension funds as being with us for beyond my life time, beyond your life time, beyond our children life time. It is a facility that is supposed to help this environment grow not only for infrastructure but to provide for people when they can no longer be actively engaged in employments along with other added advantage. It can also fund development.

    What are your projections for this year?

    I think that the processes are stable. The regulatory environment is still stable even though there’s been a transition in the executive management of pension commission. The pension industry has continued to grow from strength to strength. I think that the investment return is going to be a lot better this year than it has been over the last two to three years. Compliance has improved because PenCom has appointed recovery agents that have done some work in improving compliance to the CPS. For this year, I think we are going to see some of these consolidations but the distraction of elections would probably slow things down on the government side. So, we are not likely to see a lot of recruitment on the government side; rather hopefully with recovery in some of the sectors, particularly the new electricity management we have, we would see growth in pension account 2014.

     

     

  • AIICO pension funds hit N45b

    Apension fund administrator, AIICO Pension Managers, has said it has recorded pensioners’ fund to the tune of N45 billion.

    Head, Marketing and Sales Development, MrTunde Ottun disclosed this while speaking to journalists in Lagos on the 2014 campaign of the firm.

    Ottun said the firm has nine legacy fund with existing retirees of over a thousand and 200,000 contributors registered under it comprising persons from the government and private sectors.

    He pointed out that the PFA adopted the philosophy called “Live Smart,” because it wants its pensioners to adopt a good lifestyle where judicious usage of their funds can be attained.

    He called on people to live right,plan well in advance their retirement years,get financial education and avoid flamboyant lifestyles.

    The need for the philosophy,he said,is borne out of the fact that as PFAs, they not only want to manage their customers’ pension funds, but to also enable the attainment of positive aspirations in ways that create value in their lives.

    This ideology guides our work at AIICO Pension and largely informs the way they do business, he added.

    Commenting on the workability of the philosophy, Head of Benefits, Mr TundeAdebari, said “At AIICO Pension, we have thought long and hard about what truly makes for a desirable future and comfortable retirement. Taking on this responsibility, we have developed several platforms to enable us achieve this objective”.

    He said: “Aside communicating our message to our customers, we are also currently running several radio programmes that provide audiences with information and useful tips with the aim of subtly getting the audience to reflect on those simple acts that can help them live life better.”

    To sustain this new ideology, Acting head,Investments,Mrs Susan Ifashe said the firm has upgraded their service delivery system and redefined its processes more efficiently as it has also invested a great deal in their people, inducting them in the true spirit of the brand.

    “By this, we can successfully achieve both our objectives as a business and our customers’ retirement goals. We believe that by inspiring and enabling people to live smartly, we are helping them store up value in all areas of their lives; value which they can access in future. When this happens, we have successfully done good business”.

  • Wema Bank, Eterna, Aiico, 48 others risk N90m NSE’s fines

    The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has identified some 51 companies that are technically due for fines for failure to meet the deadlines for submission of their earnings reports, even after the extension of such deadlines.

    Up-to-date lists of companies in default of earnings filings obtained by The Nation indicated that some 30 per cent of quoted companies have failed to meet the final extended deadlines for the submission of their audited reports and accounts. This implies that more than two-thirds, 70 per cent, of quoted companies submitted their earnings reports within the extended window for earnings reports.

    It was showed that more companies might be sanctioned for failure to file their audited reports this year than the previous year. In its latest compliance status report, the NSE had reported that it slammed some N60.2 million as fines on 34 firms for failure to meet deadlines for 2011 audited reports. With a range of N3.8 million and N100, 000, average fine for the previous year was N1.77 million.

    The companies currently tagged for failure to submit their annual reports within extended deadlines included Wema Bank, the only banking stock with such tag; AIICO Insurance, Eterna, Union Homes Savings & Loans, Omatek Ventures, Vono Products, Resort Savings and Loans, DN Meyer and Beco Petroleum.

    There was also large concentration of defaulters in the troubled insurance subsector with not less than 25 insurance companies penciled down as defaulters. Besides AIICO, other defaulting insurance companies included African Alliance, Continental Reinsurance, Cornerstone Insurance, Custodian and Allied, Equity Assurance, Goldlink Insurance, Great Nigeria Insurance, Guinea Insurance, International Energy Insurance, Lasaco Assurance, Law Union and Rock Insurance, Linkage Assurance, Mutual Benefit Assurance, NEM Insurance, Niger Insurance, Oasis Insurance, Prestige Assurance, Regency Alliance Insurance, Sovereign Trust Insurance, STACO, Standard Alliance, Unic Insurance, Unity Kapital Assurance, Universal Insurance Company and Investment and Allied Assurance.

    Other defaulters included Nigeria Energy Sector Fund (NESF), Nigerian-German Chemical, Rak Unity Petroleum, PS Mandrides & Co, FTN Cocoa Processors, Big Treat, UTC Nigeria, Fortis Microfinance Bank, Conoil, Royal Exchange Nigeria, Starcomms, MTI, IPWA, Nigerian Wire & Cable, Capital Hotel, Ikeja Hotel, Daar Communications and MTECH Communications.

    The NSE usually sanctioned earnings report defaulters in line with the provisions of Section 14 of Appendix 111 of the Listing Rules of NSE. Most of the firms tagged were also fined in the previous year.

    The lists also indicated that nearly three-quarters of quoted companies failed to meet the deadlines for their first quarter earnings reports for the year. However, NSE had not applied sanctions on defaulters for interim reports, although it maintains a deficiency tag on each stock that defaults to alert investors on the corporate governance and compliance status of the company.

    Post-listing rules at the NSE require that quoted companies should submit their reports, not later than three months after the expiration of the period.

    Most quoted companies including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year. The business year thus terminates on December 31.

    NSE’s regulatory filing calendar indicates that the deadline for submission of annual report for companies with Gregorian calendar business year is March 31. However, the NSE provides that where a filing due date falls on a weekend or holiday, the filing will fall due on the next business day. March 31 fell on Sunday while April 1 was a public holiday in commemoration of Easter Monday, thus the due date for the deadline was Tuesday, April 2, 2013.

    However, the NSE had extended the regular deadline for all quoted companies by 30 days as a general concession in recognition of challenges being faced by companies, especially with regards to adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

    The extension had came a day after The Nation exclusively reported that banks’ results might fell below earnings report due date of April 2, due to issues around IFRS and Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) approval.

    According to the NSE, the extension was an intervention to ensure listed companies present their audited and interim reports accurately as well as provide assurance to businesses and advisors affected by the early adoption of IFRS and levels of regulatory approvals which now includes Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

    The NSE had indicated that it would not apply the tag of Below Listings Standard (BLS) on the names of the companies nor impose fines on them during the extended period.

    “While we believe that the timely disclosure of financial information is critical to stakeholders in the capital market as well as investors, the challenges which the entities are facing are germane. It is in view of the extenuating circumstances that the Exchange is granting all listed companies an extended filing date of 30 days from the due date of the required periodic financial submissions,” General Manager, Legal and Regulation Division, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Ms. Tinu Awe, had said.

    NSE tags and applies fines on companies that fail to meet earnings reports’ deadline. Under the corporate governance and rules compliance assessment report known as X-Compliance Report, NSE identified four different kinds of tags or symbols to alert investors about the status of each quoted company. These included below listings standard (BLS), the first degree alert level indicating a company that has not complied with post listing rules such as late submission of financial statements, unauthorised publication, management failures among others.

    Also, financial services companies such as bank and insurance companies awaiting regulatory approval will carry the appropriate symbol of awaiting regulatory approval (ARA). Companies that are undergoing a capital reconstruction exercise including supplementary issue, share buyback, split, share reconstruction among others will be tagged with capital reconstruction exercise (CRE) while companies that have indicated that they will be delisting or companies that are being delisted at the instance of the regulator would be flagged with delisting in process (DIP) symbol.

  • AIICO repackages policy to enhance savings culture

    AIICO Insurance PLC has repackaged its Corporate Savings Plan to ensure holders of the policy enjoy more benefits.

    The initiative is also to ensure that majority of Nigerians embrace the savings culture to guarantee their financial future.

    Managing Director, AIICO Insurance, David Sobanjo, disclosed this to reporters in Lagos.

    According to him, policy holders will also enjoy the benefits of the policy as it provides a return on the holders’ investment while additional life assurance benefit is payable to the dependents of the policyholder in the unfortunate event of death within the policy term.

    He further said AIICO Corporate Savings Plan is an investment policy that offers protection as well.

    He added that the savings plan is suitable for individuals, members of social clubs, cooperatives societies and employees of organisations that are eager to save through payroll deduction.

    He said rural population and others with seasonal incomes are also eligible to subscribe to the plan as long as they are determined to invest part of their earnings to yield good returns and secure their financial future.

    The AIICO boss explained that the minimum policy term is one year, adding that to make the product affordable to majority of the populace in the country, people can contribute as low as N5000 per month to participate in the plan.

    He said: “Should the policyholder die while the policy is in force, his dependents will be entitled to a life assurance benefit of three times the annual contribution subject to a maximum of N2 million.

    “The plan has been so designed to cater for exigencies as the policyholder has the option of partial withdrawal for emergency cases. Holders of AIICO Corporate Savings Plan can equally pledge the policy as collateral security for loan.”

    He said while the policyholder are assured of guaranteed returns on their investment, they are also free to use maturity proceeds to purchase annuity.

    He also said the underwriting firm has a reputation for prompt claims payment.

    “The insurance firm paid claims totaling N6.3 billion in 2012 in keeping faith with its promise to pay all genuine claims promptly and the firm will continue to discharge its responsibility in the area of claims payment whenever the need arises,” he added.

     

  • AIICO offers discounted rates at summer

    AIICO offers discounted rates at summer

    With summer season at its peak, AIICO Insurance Plc is offering discounted rates to the public on its travel insurance policy.

    Managing Director, AIICO, David Sobanjo, who made this known to reporters in Lagos, said this is in line with the company’s determination to ensure that Nigerians are protected whenever they travel outside the country.

    According to him, the policy, which is called AIICO Travel insurance, is designed to give cover to policyholders should the need arise for emergency medical expenses, repatriation and evacuation during international trips.

    He said the people would enjoy discounted rates on family and group travels with benefits such as family and personal health cover while on international trip.

    The policyholder would also be entitled to emergency evacuation from foreign land, medical repatriation, funeral expenses, medical emergency and 24-hour call center service and assistance.

    He assured that their claims would be paid promptly whenever the need arises, pointing out that as a testimony, the insurance firm paid claims totalling N6.3billion to its clients last year.

    He said the focus of the firm is the prompt settlement of genuine claims and that this will continue to be the philosophy of the company.

    He also said the insurance company is conscious of the need to ensure that its customers are satisfied, adding that it is the only way to build customer loyalty.

    The company’s determination to meet and surpass the expectation of its customers informed its decision to call on the public who have unclaimed benefits with the organisation to collect them.

    The insurance firm boss explained that its decision to pay benefits that due to policyholders or their dependants, but have not been claimed, was in keeping faith with its promise to make the customers enjoy the benefits of insurance.

    After operating in the country for 50 years, he said AIICO is set to render excellent services to its customers.

     

  • AIICO has paid N1.2 b to its retirees

    ..Pension fund administrator

    The deputy general manager, Technical, AIICO Pension Managers, Mr. Patrick Onos, has disclosed that the pension fund managers have paid N1.2 billion to retirees since its inception. He said an average of N12million is being paid monthly to retirees under its portfolio, with the amount set to grow as more retirees join the pension fund company. Onos said this in Lagos at the retirees forum held for its pensioners, where he said their retirees are paid at when due.

    Onos said the fast payment is because “AIICO Pension Managers has organised itself around an inspiring principle: helping people make smart choices for now and for the future”.

    He said fraud in the industry is caused by the old system of things which is no more, as the new arrangement is that no pension fund manager can access fund without the National Pension Commission (PenCom), being aware of it.

    He said despite the company being a pension fund administrator, funds of retirees are kept with a different body serving as a Pension Fund Custodian (PFC),even though, AIICO gives them instruction on how to disburse the fund. He said his confidence in the PFC is borne out of the fact that stringent measures are put in place before any PFC can be registered, hence the reason why they are few in the country.

    He said the company, beyond effective pension funds administration, ‘is continuously identifying and exploring ways to ensure that its customers are encouraged to make smart moves and choices at every point in their lives. It is a direction the company has recently come to hold very dear because the idea sums up the benefits of planning for the future and the value of making smart decisions on both the present and the future’. The Retiree Forum is a yearly gathering hosted by AIICO Pension, done at the zonal level across the country and is one of the ways the company is showing its commitment to customer service and satisfaction, says Onos.