SA Insurance pays out N1.07bn claims

The plant brews the following brands-Star 60cl, Gulder, Legend Extra Stout, Multina, Amstel Malta and Farouz

Standard Alliance Insurance plc, has reported a gross premium of N3.78 billion in the 2013 financial year, just as it has paid out N1.07 billion in claims to its genuine affected policyholders.

This information formed part of the report the Chairman, Yahaya Sa’ad, gave to the company’s owners during its 18th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos last week Tuesday.

According to him, the gross premium recorded was N3.78 billion against N5.38 billion in 2012, a drop of 30 percent, clarifying however that of the N5.38bn in 2012, N2.81bn was impaired, making N2.57bn the effective gross premium for 2012. This was connected to the expected impact of the ‘No premium, No cover policy’ which became effective at the beginning of the year as well as the slow growth of the economy.

Sa’ad hinted further that the company recorded a loss of N240 million as against N1.05 billion in 2012, noting that the improvement in performance in comparison to the loss made in 2012 was a result of cost optimisation and prudent management of ‘no premium, no cover policy’ in the year under review.

He explained that “we are, however, encouraged that the company continued to make operating profit from its core business and consequently, we are determined to turn the cycle and return the company to full profitability in 2014 and beyond as the company’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarter results already released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange show it was in a full and fast lane to recovery.”

The Chairman told the shareholders that net claims expenses incurred by the firm rose by 17per cent from N912.9 million in 2012 to N1.07bn in 2013, an indication that customers’ expectations were met and surpassed during the year under review.

Sa’ad who thanked the owners of the company for their support assured that “we shall continually and strategically build on our reputation as a one-stop general insurance service provider to take advantage of the windows of opportunities being created by our regulator’s positive activities to remain competitive and generate a profitable after tax position as we look forward to a boisterous year ahead.”

On his part, the company’s Managing Director, Tom Imokhai, assured that “as a service organization, we will continue to improve on our service delivery to our customers and business partners through value-added service delivery for our customers’ satisfaction,” disclosing that the company’s management has increased emphasis on introducing new customer-friendly products as well as expanding our channel of reaching our scattered customer-base.”

According to him, “we will continue to deploy strategies that will enable us fully exploit emerging business opportunities and also place the company amongst the first top five market leaders within the next three years.”