Insurance Industry’s Total Premium Hits N350bn 

By Ebere Nwoji

The insurance industry has announced a total premium of N350 billion in its business activities in 2015, against N294billion it recorded in 2014. This represents 19per cent increase from last year’s figure.

The industry, however, did not give a breakdown of how the above figure was generated between life and non-life business segments for the period.

But non-life insurance segment, topped life in gross premium generation for the year 2014, as the its gross premium for 2014 stood at N184,967,767 billion, while gross premium from life segment for the same period, stood at N108,576,192billion.

Similarly, the industry, experienced more claims from the non-life segment for the period as gross claims paid from non-life business for the same period stood at N51,061,483billion,while gross claims experience from life  stood  at N35,946,322billion.

Announcing the results at the company’s 45th annual general meeting of the umbrella body of insurance underwriters, the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) held in Lagos, outgoing chairman of the association, Mr. Godwin Wiggle, noted that the industry, performed the way it did last year, thus generating the above figure as overall premium because 2015, as an election year, witnessed many policy shifts.

He observed that the challenge of epileptic power supply was more pronounced during the year, while problems of infrastructure decay and liquidity squeeze, occasioned by falling oil prize and the slow pace with which the new government approached governance, had economic grave implications which also affected the insurance industry.

Wiggle, however, said with the full implementation of the corporate governance code, improved enforcement of ‘no premium no cover’, better adherence to the prudential guidelines, full compliance with IFRS and improved anti-money laundering mechanisms in addition with administrative acumen and ingenuity of insurance chief executives, the insurance industry in Nigeria, continued to be the preferred investment destination from renowned players in the world insurance market.

He said NIA, during the year under review, engaged in several initiatives aimed at improving  the business terrain thereby enhancing  the growth of the industry.

He highlighted some of the initiatives as Nigerian Insurance Industry Database,(NIID)  saying that reports from states  and statistics from uploads have given the industry renewed hope that the NIID is on course and if fully embraced, would reduce the incidence of fake motor  certificates in the market.

According to him, the association, during the year under review, extended the NIID to states such as Ondo, Ekiti adding that discussions are ongoing with other state governments to key into the project.

“In the course of the enforcement of the motor insurance verification system, issues have been thrown up and ways of improving on the already existing platform have been suggested, the association is engaging with the solutions provider to address some of the challenges posed by the verification device. It is expected that once these issues are resolved, it will engender greater  confidence in the scheme, ” he stated.

He said given the challenges associated with internet access in some locations, the association is holding  discussions  with some service providers to explore the possibilities of using the USSD Code for verification of motor vehicle especially in areas where the mobile verification device  appears to be having  challenges with network and internet connectivity.