NSIA Insurance, part of NSIA Participations is positive about meeting the N18 billion minimum paid-up share capital requirement set for composite underwriting firms in Nigeria.
The NSIA Participations, currently present in 12 African countries including Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, and controls about 96 percent equity stake in Nigeria’s NSIA has given their backing to recapitalize 70 percent of the equity and allow interested Nigerian investors come in and own 30 percent.
According to the company, if local Nigerian investors fail to take up this stake, the NSIA Participation joint shareholders will be prepared to take it up.
Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, managing director/CEO of NISA Insurance Limited (Nigeria) said during an interview at her corporate head office in Lagos that “on the ongoing recapitalisation, be rest assured we will be capitalized and continue business after the exercise is completed in June 2020”, she said
She stated “we have foreign investors talking to us. As a composite Insurance company we are expected to do N18 billion, we are looking at 10 billion capital injection, because NSIA joint shareholders have 96percent shares of the company and we want this process to be the one that allows us have more local investors come in.
She noted that the group has already injected some additional money that is being processed right now because they want to continue to hold about 70percent, so, we are just looking at 30 percent from additional investors to join the NSIA group.
“However, in the event that the local investors don’t align with our core values, because there have to be compatibility in terms of focus and vision, then we will accept the foreign investors”.
Nwachukwu noted that NISA has always paid dividends to share holders, as there has not been any year we haven’t increased the value of business to shareholders.
On the potential of insurance business in Nigeria, Nwachukwu noted that insurance business though has underperformed at the moment, but in that under performance are a lot of potentials, and thinks that additional capital will enable operators maximized that potential and return value to shareholders and increase contributions to GDP.
“We have to move insurance from the one that waits for businesses to happen to the one that makes businesses to happen”
“In the foreign countries where you say insurance penetration is very high, credit is available because you can’t access credit without insurance, now you notice that Nigerian banks are beginning to offer more and more credit to customers, and then there comes the role of insurance to enable you access more credit and this will become dominant over time.”
For us at NSIA, we will definitely be working very hard to increase our penetration ratio. I think the opportunity is enormous for the industry, she said.
With its head office in Lagos, strong regional presence in Abuja and a large network in strategic states across the country, NSIA Insurance offers a wide range of insurance services at competitive rates to meet the changing financial, investment and lifestyle needs of its corporate, commercial and individual customers.
Modestus Anaesoronye
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