NEM Insurance Plc on Thursday in Lagos held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in line with the social distancing guideline, paying its shareholder a 15 kobo dividend from its business activities in 2019.
The Group in the 2019 financial year recorded a Gross Premium of N19.8 billion as against N15.04 billion generated in 2018, an increase of 31.3 percent.
Fidelis Ayebae, chairman of the Company who disclosed this during the AGM, said profit after tax for the year was N2.4 billion, as against N2.04 billion in 2018, an increase of of 17.6 percent.
Ayebae said as a result of the crash in interest rate during the reporting period, the income earned on investment came down to N878.2 million as against the previous year’s N952.8 million. This resulted in a reduction of 7.8 percent.
Keeping to its terms of the contract and meeting customer obligations to policy holders, the insurer paid claims amounting to N7.4 billion, as against N6.01 billion paid in 2018.
Ayebae said there was also increase of N1.08 billion, N3.25 billion and N1.67 billion in the Group’s Financial Assets, Total Assets and Total Equity respectively, while earnings per share (EPS) for the year under review was 45 kobo, against previous year’s 39 kobo, an increase of 17.6 percent.
On the Company’s response to Covid-19 pandemic which has taken a huge toll on businesses, Ayabe noted that the focus has been on the safety of her personnel, ensuring the continuity of access to the firm products by clients and also efficient service delivery.
“As the situation continues to be very dynamic, the Company has been working diligently to assess the potential risks posed by COVID-19 to its business on an ongoing basis and to realign its strategies accordingly.”
According to him, the Company has adopted policies which are prudent at this time to grow its market share by leveraging extensively on its robust technology infrastructure and maintain a healthy balance sheet.
Tope Smart, GMD of the Company said despite the difficult operating environment, coupled with increased claims profile due to some very big claims paid during the period under review, the Company was still able to record some modest achievements in most of the indices.
These claims he noted was a lot of pressure on bottom line, stating that efforts were being made to ensure the numbers are improved.
“With a very strong foundation and brand reputation, we are well positioned to move to the next level even as we continue to delight all our stakeholders, Smart said.
