SIX insurance firms in Nigeria have been reported to have suffered setbacks in their profits after tax (PAT) in 2021.
The firms whose financial reports were assessed are Universal Insurance Plc, AIICO Insurance Plc, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Cornerstone Insurance Plc and NEM Insurance Plc.
The affected companies collectively made a PAT of N16.22bn between January and December 2021, compared to the higher sum of N18.09bn they earned in the corresponding period of 2020.
Analysis of the full-year financial reports of the six firms from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) indicated that the figure decreased in 2021 by N1.86bn, representing a 10.30 per cent fall.
Universal Insurance Plc recorded N376.96m as PAT for 2021, down from N624.64m in 2020, while AIICO Insurance Plc’s PAT for the period was N4.15bn, as against N4.98bn it earned in 2020.
Axa Mansard Insurance Plc’s PAT dropped to N3.55bn in 2021, from N4.54bn in 2020; Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc reported the sum of N738.02m in 2021 as profit, compared to N677.98m in the corresponding period of 2020; Cornerstone Insurance Plc recorded a profit leap to N3.03bn in 2021, from N2.19bn in 2020; and NEM Insurance Plc recorded a N4.36bn PAT in 2021, down from N5.07bn in 2020.
Meanwhile, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has said that insurance companies in the country earned N630.36bn premium in 2021 and paid N238.05bn as claims.
According to the Commission, the total gross premium income insurance companies earned in 2020 was N520bn.
NAICOM said the total asset of the underwriting companies in 2021 was N2.14 trillion, while net claims paid was N238.05bn.
Similarly, the Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Ganiyu Musa, disclosed that members of the group had paid over N11bn as claims for losses suffered during the aftermath of the protests on police brutality, tagged the #EndSARS protest.
In a related development, NEM Insurance Plc and Axa Mansard Insurance Plc had forecast their earnings for the first quarter of 2022.
Axa Mansard Insurance forecast a PAT of N2.65bn for the first quarter of 2022, while NEM Insurance forecast a PAT of N2.41bn in the same period.
Recently, a Nigerian entrepreneur and investor Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede said that the country’s insurance and asset management sectors were too small to trigger prosperity and growth.
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