Tope Smart, GMD, Nem Insurance Plc
BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR–Nigeria’s lead underwriter NEM Insurance Plc said it paid a total of N11.6billion as claim to policyholders at the end of full year 2021.
Nem’s 2021 account statement presented to shareholders at its 52nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos, showed that the claims of payment stood at N11.6billion in 2021 when compared N8.4billion paid in 2020; indicating 26% increase.
Speaking at the event, the chairman of the company, Dr. Fidelis Ayebae, said that the net claims stood at N5.6billion in 2021, 9% lower than that of the preceding period which recorded N6.05billion.
He added that net claims ratio for the period under review was 20% as against 27% in 2020 due to good claims recovery during the period under review.
The Group’s Profit After Tax (PAT) in the year under review stood at N4.448 billion compared to N5.084 billion in the previous year representing a decline of 12.5%.
He noted that the parent company also recorded a decline of 12% in PAT over the preceding period. That is, N5.075 billion in 2020 against N4.440billion in 2021. This is majorly due to sharp decrease in fair value gain.
“There were increases of N3billion, N6.9billion and N4.5billion in the Group’s Financial Assets, Total Assets and Total Equity respectively.
Also, the parent company had increases of N2.9billion; N6.8billion and N4.5billion in Financial Assets, Total Assets and Total Equity respectively.
The insurer gross premium rose to N27.8billion as against N22billion generated in the preceding year 2020; an increase of 26%, while net premium earned during the period under review was N19.3 billion and 23% increase over the preceding period of 2020 which recorded N15.8 billion.
Though the interest rate in commercial paper was low in 202 management was proactive enough to take the advantage of other investment opportunities to generate, income on investment of N1.134billion as against the previous income on investment in 2020 which was N1.004 billion. This resulted in an increase of about 13%.
Investment in Associate (RegencyNem Insurance Limited, Ghana) was fully impaired in 2021 because of going concern issues.
Following it’s performance, the board of directors recommended a dividend of 22 kobo per ordinary shares to be paid out of the profit for the year.
Speaking further on its performance, the group managing director/ CEO, Tope Smart said that “despite this difficult terrain, our company showed resilience and we were able to post impressive results.A review of our performance shows that all our performance indices came out positive during the period under review. “
