Insurers overcome IFRS hurdle, face less pressure on 2013 accounts

Precisely three months into the new year, no fewer than seven insurance firms have submitted their 2013 full year International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) compliant audited financials to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

This is coming ahead June 30 deadline given to insurance companies to submit their full year accounts to the industry regulator or face penalty, meaning that 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.

As at April 8, 2014 three companies, including Custodian Life Assurance Limited, Custodian General Insurance Limited and Mansard Assurance plc have secured approval of their 2013 accounts, while Zenith Life Insurance Limited, NSIA Insurance Limited FBN Life Assurance and Cornerstone Insurance plc have also submitted and awaiting 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 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 fasten 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.

“Until late last year, we did not realise the importance of engaging actuaries as a necessary part of our operations, but having done all that we have crossed the IFRS hurdle by the grace of God.”

The roadmap for Nigeria to transform to IFRS was approved officially on September 2, 2010 following an amendment  which was supported by the various regulatory bodies such as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Accounting Standards Board (NASB), Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) and National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

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