Sub-regional Underwriters’ Turnover, Profit Nosedive

Ebere Nwoji

Operators of African Sub-regional Insurance market have continued to lose major businesses to their counterparts in foreign markets due to a lack of technical capacity and other related factors. As a result, their profit margin and premium income have continued to nosedive in recent times.

The region, has in the past five years, recorded losses in core technical businesses like aviation and oil and gas, a situation, which they blamed on lack of support to each other by their various counterparts and preference of big business operators in the region to insure abroad instead of within the region.

In the 2016 annual review of African Insurance Organisation (AIO), released at the 43rd AIO conference and General Assembly held in Marrakech, Morocco, the African Aviation Insurance pool, a consortium of countries underwriting aviation insurance, in its report to the general assembly, said that the pool’s premium income in 2O15, dropped by 40percent from the $2,670,621million in 2014 to N1,021,77million in 2015.
The pool also recorded a drop in its gross premium between 2012 and 2013.

The AIO review shows that the pool’s gross premium dropped from $3,249,244million in 2012 to $2,670,622million in 2013.
Between 2010 and 2011, the pool recorded a major drop from $5,896,189million in 2010 to N3,987,719million in 2011.
The pool recorded a drop in profit between 2013 and 2014 from N1,517, 317million in 2014, to N371,904 in 2013. The pool’s profit again dropped from $824,720 in 2011 to $9,759 in 2012.

The AIO review also showed a major drop in the pool’s profit from N3,924,854million in 2010 to N824,720 in 2011.
In oil and gas sector, the report also showed that it is not yet uhuru for the regional market as the African Oil and Energy pool with 50 underwriting members from 14 African countries in 2010 recorded gross premium income of N21,103,565 million as against the N16,350,761million in 2011.

The pool, however in 2013, recorded slight improvement in its gross premium as it rose from N14,904,928 in 2012 to $15,902011 in 2013.
The pool’s profit also dropped from N4,750,653 million in 2013 to N247,574 in 2014.
The profit again dropped from N 8,153,076 in 2011 to N3,153,302 in 2012 .In 20 10, the profit was N10,868,083million.
The Organisation said the oil and Energy pool witnessed increase in its income between 2013 and2014 despite the fact that offshore energy rates have been falling in a very competitive market.

The hike in premium income, it noted, was due to increased businesses from Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Congo, Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
The review further said the formation of its own local oil and Energy pool by Nigeria, also affected the performance of the sub-regional pool.
In February last year, the Nigerian Insurance Underwriters, in their bid to ensure active participation in underwriting of businesses of oil multinationals in the country, formed their own energy pool.
Immediate past president of AIO Mrs. Lamia Ben Mahmoud urged members of the pool to cooperate with each other in order to improve on their performance.