BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR–-Months after the end of first quarter 2020, African Alliance Insurance Plc (hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) has failed to file its unaudited first quarter statement for the period ended 31st March,2020 to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
This is contained in a notice released by the exchange to dealing members and investors that the insurer has also requested for approval for extension of time to file its audited financial statement for the period ended 31st December, 2019.
The notice thus read: “African Alliance Insurance Plc (hereinafter referred to as “the Company”), wishes to notify its esteemed shareholders and other stakeholders that the Company has obtained the approval of The Nigerian Stock Exchange (The Exchange) for extension of time to file its Audited Financial Statements (AFS) for the period ended 31st December, 2019 and First Quarter Unaudited Financial Statements (UFS) for the period ended 31st March, 2020.”
The notice further reads that the delay in filing the aforementioned accounts is due to the fact that the Company is still awaiting approval of its primary regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on the said accounts.
According to the NSE, company that failed to file its accounts for the period as expected is marked out by the Exchange as a corporate governance failure, which attracts monetary fines, “naming and shaming” tag, suspension of shares from trading and delisting in incurable cases of default.
Under the listing rules, a late submission attracts a fine of N100,000 daily for the first 90 calendar days of non-compliance, another N200,000 per day for the next 90 calendar days and a fine of N400,000 per day thereafter until the date of submission.
With these, late submission under the first instance of 90 days could attract N9 million, the additional 90 days will attract N18 million while such delay beyond the first 180 days to the next 180 days could attract as much as N72 million, bringing fines payable by a defaulting company within a year to N99 million.
The list of sanctions shows fines ranging from a low of N0.1 million to as high as N51.4 million. Companies had been fined more than N400 million and N500 million in 2016 and 2017 respectively for failure to submit accounts within scheduled periods.
