BY NKECHI NAECHE—– LASACO Assurance Plc has paid a total of N8.775million to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) as fine in 2017.
According to data sourced from the official site of NSE the breakdown shows that LASACO Assurance paid a monetary fine of N5million in 2016 and N3.525 million in 2017 for late submission of its annual returns to SEC and N250,000 to NAICOM in 2016 for late submission of board resolution, amounting to a total of N8.775million.
The insurer, investigation revealed, that its results have not been quite impressive in 2017 as its profit before tax dropped 25 percent from N1,144,881billion reported in 2016 to N854,273 million in 2017.
The insurer’s profit after tax was not left out as it came down from N944,461million in 2016 to
N661,878million in 2017; representing a drop of 30 percent.
Total asset of the company depreciated further by four percent to stand at N18,571billion in 2017 as against N19,298billion achieved in the preceding year of 2016.
Speaking on the fine, the President, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), Mr. Boniface Okezie, said: “Some insurance companies have corporate governance issues. We commend NAICOM because it will not approve any account unless it is thorough, kudos to the commission for safe guarding the interest of the investors as well as customers.”
On huge fines he said “huge fines and management expenses have also affected the reserves of the most insurance companies, adding with negative reserves, the most firms will not be able to meet most of its responsibilities especially prompt claims payment.
