WAICA Re targets 2014 for dividend, plans N25 billion capital raise

Precisely two years after establishment, regional reinsurer, WAICA Reinsurance plc has broken even with the potential to pay its first dollar dividend in 2014. The company’s 2012 financial accounts approved in March, beyond expectation shows positive result that puts the company in a position to reward its shareholders soon, Abiola Ekundayo, its managing director has said.

Currently operating with about $33 million from her first capital raise in 2011, the company is planning to shop for another $25 million to shore up its operation. Ekundayo who spoke with journalist in Cairo, Egypt stated that, it was discussing with EDC Limited as financial advisers to use their wide network to attract investors from across the African market to invest in WAICA Re.

“We want to avoid the initial mistake we made in our first offer, which concentrated only in Sierra Leone, then little in Ghana and Nigeria, so it is going to be more expansive this time.”

According to Ekundayo, the organisation has come to full operation with full support of cedents from the West African Region and beyond, having also enjoyed the goodwill of WAICA Poll as offshoot.

Though he said quite a lot of the WAICA Pool funds are still not accessible to WAICA Re because of a few documentations on signatories, the new company according to him has continued to meet its obligations even to the extent of claims settlement on WAICA Poll cedents.

“Recently we paid $52,000 claims to Ghana Re from the account of WAICA Pool, which we will take back when part of its monies locked up in Union Bank of UK Limited, Commercial Bank of Ghana and some in Nigeria are accessed.

WAICA Reinsurance plc, an organisation belonging to insurance companies in the West African Sub-region with head office in Sierra Leone officially commissioned in 2012 having operated skeletally in 2011.

The firm with investors across the continent was set to address the capacity challenge faced by the regional market in its many years of insurance practice, where foreign counterparts had controlled larger share of the market.