Mr. Ademola Abidogun, MD/ CEO Guinea Insurance PLC
BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR–The management of Guinea Insurance PLC, has once again assured shareholders and the investing public that the company will deliver profit in 2023.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Ademola Abidogun, disclosed at this year’s Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editor (NAIPE) first quarter CEOs’ Forum with Guinea Insurance Plc held in Lagos.
He said in the last three years, the company has reduced its losses from N700 million to N200 million to N20 million.
Speaking on on what the company has done so far to achieve profitability, he said “you will discover that based on what we are doing now, we will make profit by the end of the 2023 financial year.
“Moving from the negative position that we were, we have done a lot in terms of shaping the company and we are still going to do a lot this year in terms of revamping the entire operations of the company, in terms of the outlook, and in terms of being more visible.
“Our priority for this year is to ensure that we deliver profit to all the stakeholders. The era of making loses is gone. This year we will continue with the work we have done which we have started seeing results and this will lead us to delivering value to all our stakeholders because that is the time you can talk about people coming to invest in the company.
“We are also working on the negative mind-set of the people about the company. We operate an open administration, and we do not do things that are against the law”, Mr. Abidogun stated.
“This year we have started on a very good note. We are doing over 400 per cent of our production compared to the same period last year, and we have not even gotten to the end of the first quarter of the year. With what we have done so far and our plans going forward, I believe we will be able to deliver value to our shareholders because it is only when you are able to deliver value and make profit that people will want to come and invest in your business. As a matter of urgency, I believe this year we can do that.”
On corporate governance, he said “We pride ourselves as a good corporate governance company by complying fully with relevant regulations. We have zero tolerance for regulatory infractions. It is something that everybody is aware of and we always take steps to ensure that we do not fall foul of the law in anyway.
“We are committed to reduce expenses and increase turnover, increase topline and manage underwriting properly with proper reinsurance. We are also looking at businesses that we take and we make sure that we don’t just take any business. We are very optimistic and very deliberate in our analysis. We track expenses, track businesses that we do, we do a lot of analysis to ensure that we change the story.
“We have people who are business-driven that have the interest in the business, who are ready to push us to the level we want to be as a business.”