Insurance industry total assets hit N607.72bn

The nation’s insurance industry as at 2011 financial year posted a total asset of N607.72 billion as against N624.15 billion in 2010, showing drop of 0.03percent.

While the non-life companies contributed N370.39 billion in the period under review, life companies contributed N208.93 billion. This is as total liabilities of the non-life assets stood at N398.79 billion while that of life business stood at N208.77 billion.

Analysis of the distribution of assets of non-life underwriting companies show a decrease of 4.75 percent outside two reinsurance firms, from 2010 to 2011.

From the document accessed by BusinessDay investments took N156.92 billion as against N158.55 billion in 2010 while outstanding premium followed taking N53.04 billion as against N64.48 billion in 2010.

While premium outstanding for 2012 is not yet known, one would be expecting the figure for outstanding premium to reduce by more than half beginning from 2013 against the backdrop of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) enforcement of “No Premium No Cover” which began January 1, 2013.

Further analysis of assets distribution shows debtors, fixed assets following with N47.02 billion and N45.12 billion respectively.

Life companies however showed a different characteristic, growing by 0.37 percent from the figure in 2010. Investment also took the larger share of the asset allocation, showing N131 billion as against N135.49 billion in 2010. This is followed by debtors-prepayment and fixed assets which recorded N17.67 billion and N17.39 billion respectively.