L-R: Adewale Kadiri, ED, Technical; Babatunde Fajemirokun,Executive Director and Sola Ajayi, Head, Retail Business at the media briefing held today in Lagos.
BY NKECHI NAECHE—–-AIICO Insurance Plc on Wednesday said it reported a gross premiums of N32.1billion at the end of the financial year ended 31st December, 2017.
The Managing Director/CEO Edwin Igbiti disclosed this diring a media briefing held in its office that its premium income grew by 19 percent or N5.03 billion from N27.06 billion for the year ended December 31, 2016.
According to him the growth of 19% compared to 2016 was because of improved performance in the life business – “our life business grew 15% from N18.8 billion to N21.6 billion in 2017. This growth he said was driven by the increased popularity of our traditional life products: the ordinary life business grew 29% in 2017 to N16.4 billion from N12.8 billion in 2016.”
The Managing Director who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Tunde Fajemirokun said growth in the non-life business rose from N7.6 billion in 2016 to N8.7 billion in 2017, this indicating an increase of N1.1 billion or 15%.
He said “We have worked to improve our relationships with agents, brokers and various intermediaries this year to improve performance.
While noting that investment and other income rose massively by 92% in 2017 to N15.1 billion from N7.8 billion reported in 2016.
Total comprehensive income was not left out as it increased to a profit of N2.4 billion from a loss position of N655 million reported in 2016.
Total assets grew 19% to N92 billion in 2017 from N77.5 billion in 2016, while total shareholders’ equity also appreciated 25% to N10.9 billion in 2017 from N8.7 billion in 2016. This growth of over N2.2 billion he said was achieved despite the complete derecognition of deferred tax assets in our balance sheet.
This he said translated to a Net Asset per Share (Book value per share) of N1.58k compared to N1.25k in 2016.
Speaking further on the investment income he said “We continue to pursue an active investment strategy to take advantage of market conditions and improve our investment performance. The relatively low-interest rate environment provided an opportunity for the company to make some gains through trading. This was responsible for net realized gains of N5.3 billion compared to N336 million in 2016.”
He affirmed that the company’s financial position remains robust, remains an area of focus for the company and is an indicator of our capacity and strength. Assets remain adequately matched to liabilities and legacy concerns have been appropriately addressed. Value has been created over the last 5 years.
“We experienced significant growth as a company in 2017…” said Edwin Igbiti, MD/CEO of AIICO Insurance “We had to significantly increase our capacity and improve our processes to meet up with customer demands. Over the next few years, we have plans to grow our businesses; this means we must invest in technology and people to ensure our processes are more efficient to increase our capacity and improve our processes to meet up with customer demands. Over the next few years, we have plans to grow our businesses; this means we must invest in technology and people to ensure our processes are more efficient to increase customer service levels.”
