IFRS: Insurers strive to meet June 30 submission deadline

Insurance companies are working hard to submit their 2013 full year International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) compliant accounts to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) ahead June 30 deadline.

While achieving this is not necessarily to avoid fines for late submission which is already attracting the anger of shareholders, having these accounts enable companies participate in bidding for certain accounts, BusinessDay investigation has revealed.

For example, participating in key account like the Group Life insurance or the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) businesses would require that companies submit their full-year audited accounts are pre-qualification for bidding.

According to industry analysts, a lot of lessons would have been learnt from last year’s experience where most of the companies were caught unaware by the IFRS mandate leading to delay in getting approval of their accounts as well as not participating in certain businesses.

As at April 8, 2014, four companies that include Custodian Life Assurance Limited, Custodian General Insurance Limited, Mansard Assurance plc and Cornerstone Insurance plc, have already secured approval of their 2013 accounts, while Zenith Life Insurance Limited, NSIA Insurance Limited FBN Life Assurance, Wapic Insurance plc, Zenith Insurance and Wapic Life have also submitted and waiting approval.

Industry watchers are optimistic that this year would completely be different from what was experienced last year as most of the companies have already put structures in place to ensure that they beat the deadline and also hold their annual general meetings early enough to the expectation of shareholders.

Tokunbo Talabi, chairman, Great Nigeria Insurance plc, said the insurance industry is gradually overcoming the challenge posed by compliance with IFRS standard so will have less difficulty getting its accounts to the regulator for approval.

“We expect to be faster with our accounts going forward and this we are assuring shareholders,” Talabi told shareholders during its last annual general meeting in Lagos.

Mayowa Adeduro, managing director, Anchor Insurance Limited, said “You know that last year was tough for us because there was not enough experience, both from within and outside, and not only insurance companies, but across board.”

According to him, “Companies has been able to train their staff and the whole system is running smoothly now. We have improved on our software to comply with IFRS accounts and these, I believe, will hasten our processes going forward,” Adeduro said.

“The different regulators, the National Insurance Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission among others have also agreed on a particular template which organisations are adopting, which was not the case when we started so there were different versions of the template and this to a large extent has made the processes a lot more easier,” Adeduro stated.

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