NIGERIA – Nicon Insurance, one of the top insurance firms in Nigeria, is reportedly selling N20 billion (USD100 million) worth of its assets in a move to meet the insurer’s financial obligations and convert into cash assets that are no longer useful to the company.
In a statement addressed to the members of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Nicon Insurance Managing Director Bayode Samuel announced that N10 billion (USD50 million) of the company’s assets will be disposed before December of this year while the other N10 billion will be sold later.
The decision to dispose of the assets came after the federal government-owned insurer found out that the said assets were longer useful to the company.
Converting the assets into cash will also allow Nicon Insurance to meet some of its obligations, including the payment of outstanding claims to its clients. The company currently has an outstanding claims of N466 million (USD2.34).
“We will use it to expand our operations get first hand IT, pay all outstanding claims and commissions, improve staff welfare, buy operational assets like new vehicles and new operational issues, those are the things needed by modern insurance companies that is responsive to clients need; so it will help you to respond almost immediately to your clients need,” Samuel said.
In other insurance news, estimates by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) showed that written premiums of 29 listed insurers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will rise 10 percent this year and
next yea, after growing 13.5 percent last year.
According to the S&P estimates, majority of the written premiums will come from motor and medical, which is expected to constitute about 60 percent of the total growth.
The Insurance Authority announced that UAE’s written premiums rose to AED33.5 billion (USD9.12 billion) last year.
Growth prospect is high in UAE considering that insurance penetration remains low, at about 1.1 percent in 2012.
By 2017, insurance penetration in the Arabian Gulf is forecast to reach 2%, the Dubai investment bank Alpen Capital announced.
Total insurance premiums in the country are expected to rise even as premium rates continue to nosedive due to fierce competition in the market. – BusinessNewsAsia.com