45 insurers get NAICOM’s approval on 2015 accounts

By Abdul Olalekan

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has approved the 2015 financial statements of 45 out of 49 insurance companies that have so far submitted their accounts for approval, Business 247 News Online learnt.

Of the 44 insurers, Fin Insurance, Law Union & Rock Insurance Company Plc, Mansard Ins Plc, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, Custodian, Standard Alliance Life Assurance, Royal Exchange General, among others, had earlier in the year, conducted their 2015 Annual General Meeting(AGM), after having their financial statements approved by the regulatory body.

The accounts of UNIC Insurance Plc, NICON Insurance and Linkage Assurance have been queried by the commission, while the book of African Alliance Insurance is undergoing review from NAICOM.

With 49 companies so far submitted their 2015 accounts to the commission, investigation shows that, about 10 insurance companies are yet to submit theirs, three days to the end of the year. The companies had exceeded the June 30th deadline given to underwriters submit their 2015 accounts.

Hence, the 10 insurers are already paying monetary fines to NAICOM, with the listed entities among them paying fines to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), until they are able to submit their accounts.

However, the compliance rate seems to have improved a little from what it was last year, where some insurers suffered heavy monetary sanctions from NAICOM and NSE for failure to meet account submission deadline. Consequent upon this, they paid monetary fine running into several millions of naira to the two regulators, even as it impacted negatively on their balance sheet as they were unable to declare meaningful dividend or bonus to their respective shareholders, a development that the shareholders frown at.