AIICO Insurance Plc has reported gross written premiums of 25.4 billion in its unaudited half year 2019 financial results, up 32 per cent from the same period in 2018, Executive Director, Chief Operations Officer, Babatunde Fajemirokun has said.
He spoke during a media parley with reporters at the company’s headquarters in Lagos.
Fajemirokun said the growth is driven by continued solid performance across the major lines of business of the group: life and corporate and institutional businesses.
He added that the performance is ‘’a demonstration of a focused implementation of our renewed strategy, notwithstanding the challenging operating environment”.
He stated that in line with the renewed strategic aspirations for market leadership with focus on profitable growth, the company recorded a 42 per cent increase in Profit before Tax (PBT) of N3.11 billion, compared to N2.19 billion in half year 2018. Profit after Tax (PAT) also grew by 52 per cent to N2.94 billion, compared to N1.93 billion attained in half year 2018.
He said: “Customer-centric product innovations, sustained investments and automation of our agency salesforce continues to yield dynamic results as we recorded strong growth in our retail life business, which grew by 47 per cent to N15.5 billion in the period under review from N10.6 billion in the preceding year. This is an increase of 14 per cent in our corporate and institutional business to N9.5 billion.
“Within the period under review, the Group’s balance sheet improved with total assets growing by 24 per cent to N135 billion compared to N109 billion in December 2018. Also, noteworthy, is the growth in shareholders’ funds, which rose by 14 per cent to N16.6 billion from N14.5 billion.”
Commenting on the new capital requirements for the insurance industry, he said, “AIICO has put adequate strategies in place that will ensure we not only meet the new capital requirement for a composite underwriter but also surpass same with sufficient solvency margins”.
Going into the second half of the year, we remain committed to the execution of our strategic objectives whilst staying focused on our primary purpose of protecting our customers and delivering superior returns to shareholders. As we look to the future, we remain guided by our mandate to provide shared protection to every family and business, so they can live life with confidence amidst uncertainty.
