Zenith General has assured its brokers and esteemed clients of qualitative services as well as genuine claims payment as fast as possible.
Kehinde Borisade, managing director/CEO who gave the assurance at the Brokers’ forum hosted by the Company in Ibadan said the company is always ready to meet the expectation of its customers, disclosing that the claims department has been re-engineered to render best services which will be second to none in the industry.
While boasting of paying claims within 24 hours, he noted that the company paid over N4 billion claims last year and already paid about N3.5 billion claims half of this year.
He also told the brokers that the underwriting firm has grown its revenue over the years with N10.9 billion recorded last year and N7.7 billion generated in the last six months of 2019.
Borisade pointed out that Zenith general is a solid insurance firm whose business grew by 13 percent, solvency margin with 768 percent and shareholder’s funds in excess of N23 billion.
With these, Borisade revealed that, his company would meet the N10 billion new capital base for general insurance companies stipulated by NAICOM with ease by 2020.
Adeyemo Adereni, chairman, South West Region of NCRIB was in attendance to receive the underwriter.
Borisade further stated that as a forward looking organisation, it has embarked on some initiatives by investing in automation, new products development and manpower training within and outside the country.
According to him, Zenith general has introduced retail products like auto insurance, householder insurance, personal accident insurance and for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to meet the needs of our customers stressing that this is part of the business concern’s ongoing efforts to deepen penetration and reach a larger population
In his address, Adereni urged the company and other insurance companies to look into the issue of taxes especially Value Added Tax(VAT) and Withholding Tax.
He pointed out that a lot of brokers had been having running battle with Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on the issue of VAT because of direct premium most insurance companies received directly from insured.
“By virtue of provisions of instant laws that created these taxes, we brokers are the collecting agents for the former, while you underwriting firms are the collecting agents for the latter; i want to say that a lot of brokers have been having issues with FIRS.
Adereni who is the MD of New Alliance Insurance Brokers said “it is statutorily mandatory for underwriting companies to include VAT elements with our brokerage when making such payments and also remit the withholding tax deducted from the fee of brokers to FIRS with the tax identification number of the brokers concerned.
Responding on the VAT and withholding taxes, Borisade stated that the issue has become worrisome to the insurance companies saying that, it is being discussed by the umbrella body for insurance companies to find lasting solution to the problem.
Remi Feyisipo, Ibadan.
