National Insurance Commission
*NIC gives a 1st January deadline for insurance firms to meet their minimum capital requirement
*NIC to revoke licenses of insurers that fail to recapitalise by December 31st, 2021
The new insurance act takes care of policyholders whose companies fail to recapitalise.
The National Insurance Commission has applauded some insurance companies for meeting the deadline for the minimum capital requirement of GH¢50 million cedis.
According to the Commissioner of Insurance, Dr Justice Yaw Ofori, the majority of companies have recapitalized even ahead of the 31st December 2021 deadline.
Speaking at the 2021 Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana Educational Conference and Annual General Meeting, Commissioner of Insurance, Dr. Justice Ofori said the insurance commission is optimistic that the companies will be able to meet the deadline.
“So far, they [insurers] are doing well, most of them have already capitalised beyond the ¢50 million. We understand some are also trying to catch up…you know the Ghanaian always want to wait till the last minute. I know before the end of the month we will see some miracles.”
“I can’t tell whether all firms can recapitalise until we passed the 31st December 2021. This is because someone [insurer] has the money but is waiting; once there is a deadline you can’t actually do anything”, he further said
Again, Dr. Ofori noted that “we gave an extension six months, the deadline was supposed to be July 1st but because of Covid-19 we extended it to January 1st 2022.”
On the state of policy holders if companies fail to recapitalize, Dr. Ofori said “we have plans in place to ensure that if companies fail to recapitalize, their policy holders will be taken care of. The new act, Insurance Act, 2021 (Act 1061) takes care of that.”
Meanwhile, the National Insurance Commission (NIC) has given a strong indication to revoke licenses of insurance firms that fail to recapitalise by 31st of December 2021 which gives the companies few weeks to meet the new requirement of GH¢50 million which is expected to put them in good standing to be able to underwrite big ticket risks.
In addition, both life and non-life insurer companies are expected to increase their capital from GH¢15 million to GH¢50 million.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
