L-R: Mr. Solomon Akpan, Financial Controller; Mr. Adebisi Ikuomola, ED Technical; Mr. Ebose Augustine Osegha, MD/CEO Anchor Insurance Company Limited; and Mr. Ime Umoh, Company Secretary/Legal Adviser at the media parley with insurance journalists held today in Lagos.
Anchor Insurance Company Limited, a fast rising underwriting firm in the country, has grossed a premium of N5.1bn in 2020 year to date just as it achieved N4.2bn premium income as at the end of 2019.
Speaking with Insurance Correspondents in Lagos, the Managing Director of the Company, Mr. Ebose Augustine, disclosed that despite the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on business operations, Anchor Insurance was still able to achieve this result, noting that the underwriting organization’s production would have been above N7bn by now if the pandemic had not set in.
According to him, “we started the year well and from all our efforts and aggressive marketing, it was clear we were going to hit at least N7bn by mid-year 2020 but for the pandemic since March which has made the insuring public to review their insurance budgets downwards.”
According to him, “despite the Covid-19 challenges, we have surpassed the N4.2bn premium income we wrote in 2019 as I can confidently tell you that as at second week of this month of August, our performance stood at N5.1bn,” stating that for the remaining months in the year, he was sure the Company will raise this result to a greater figure.
Responding to how the Company has been doing its marketing since the advent of Covid-19, Mr. Ebose explained that “it was like we at Anchor Insurance foresaw this pandemic period when we invested in most modern information technology to drive our business.
“So, it was not difficult for us to continue to navigate the insurance market using what we had already put in place and it has really helped in ensuring we never suffered any panic in this era of doing business differently,” he noted.
He said “this manifest new approach to doing insurance business even before the advent of Covid-19 alongside other giant strides made by the Company earned us an award as the “Insurance Company of the Year 2019” in February this year by Daily Independent newspaper.
Mr. Ebose explained that the Company whose 2019 accounts has been approved by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and Annual General Meeting (AGM) accordingly fixed for September 4th is not looking back at pushing up its premium income and attending to genuine claims requests with utmost concern.
He hinted further that the company was strongly pursuing its recapitalization in line with the order of the National Insurance Commission, noting that Anchor Insurance was recapitalizing without any merger plan to retain its brand identity.
“As for the recapitalization ordered by our regulator, our Board of Directors does not want anything that will alter the company’s identity. It is, therefore, our resolve to recapitalize alone as Anchor Insurance Company Limited. We do not have plans for now to acquire any company that might not be meeting up with the recapitalization requirements but we can buy over their policy portfolios where the need arises,” he explained.
Highlighting the Company’s performances in 2019, the Managing Director disclosed that Anchor Insurance recorded N4.2bn premium income as against N3.4bn in 2018, achieved a profit after tax of N220.2m from its 2018 N163.8m feat and paid claims totalling N929.6m compared to N816.9m administered in the corresponding period of 2018.
He noted that “the selling points of the company are its stable ability and deliberate policy of responding to genuine claims request speedily, continually meeting global best practices, religiously adopting good corporate governance in all its dealings and ensuring adequate return on investments to shareholders.”
