All Posts in "Day: July 16, 2021"

CHI gives Awards to winners of 10th Essay Competition

CAPTION:

Group Managing Director/CEO, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Mr. Eddie Efekoha (3rd from Right) with the 2nd Prize Winner of the 10th edition of the company’s Annual Essay Competition for Tertiary Institutions, Obikwere Victor of the Imo State University and Miss Oyefejo Olaseni of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu (3rd Prize). With them are Mrs. Yetunde Ilori (Director-General, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Mrs. Abimbola Tiamiyu, Director-General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, (CIIN), and Dr. (Mrs.) Yeside Oyetayo, the Rector of the College of Insurance & Financial Management (CIFM).

By Favour Nnabugwu

In its drive to catch them young, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) Plc 10th edition of Essay completion for Tertiary institution gave our Awards to winners as Miss Olatunji Rebecca of Joseph Ayo Babalola University won the best overall for 2020

After Olatunji Rebecca of Joseph Ayo Babalola University, the Award which took place in Lagos yesterday, was followed by Mr. Obikwere Victor from Imo State University (2nd Prize), and Miss Oyefejo Olaseni from Lagos State Polytechnic finishing third place.

Their research topic was titled: “Financial technology disruption in the Banking Sector and lessons for the Insurance Industry, A case study of ‘Opay’ (Mobile Bank)”.

The Group Managing Director of Company, Mr. Eddie Efekoha, said the competition is making significant impact in the insurance industry.

He said, “We have continued to execute the programme, for the entire industry as some of the previous winners have been employed in the industry and creating value for their respective organizations.”

Efekoha commended the assessors for adhering to high standards which has ensured that the very best emerged winners over the years.

Director General of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) Mrs. Yetunde Ilori urged the winners to aim for more achievement in life

Ilori advised them to appreciated the entire management and staff of CHI Plc for being a source of inspiration and creating the platform for students to embark on research and express themselves through the competition.

In her remarks, Mrs. Oladotun Adeogun, the Chairperson of the Essay Awards Committee stated that the Essay Competition received a total number of 24 entries from students of tertiary institutions in 300 level or HND 1 and above studying Insurance or Actuarial Science.

She said the entries were thought provoking and very insightful and expressed gratitude to the independent panel of assessors for their immense contribution towards selecting the various winners based on the set standards.

Patoma Admin by — July 16, 2021 in Insurance 0
ATI provides $4.4m insurance cover through RLSF

Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

African Trade Insurance (ATI), through the Regional Liquidity Support Facility (RLSF), will provide insurance cover for an amount of $4.4 million against the Risk of delayed payment by ESCOM for the 60MW Salima Solar PV.

The RLSF policy will be for an initial tenure of up to ten years. The liquidity cover being provided via RLSF will enable up to $78 million of total project financing.

Salima Solar PV plant is due to start operations in August 2021. This will be the first solar PV in Malawi to connect to the grid. The energy generated, at an estimated annual average of 154GWh, will be sold exclusively to the Malawian utility, ESCOM, under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

This is the second project in the country to benefit from RLSF; the first project being Phase 1 of the Nkhotakota Solar Power Plant, with an initial installed capacity of 21MW. With project construction almost finalised, Salima Solar will be the first solar PV in Malawi to connect to the grid.

The 60MW Salima Solar PV plant will be instrumental for Malawi’s underdeveloped electricity sector, which has an installed generation capacity of around 439MW. Over 90% of this capacity comes from hydropower plants on the Shire River in the southern region. This heavy reliance on hydro is often constrained by drought and low water levels.

Reforms by the government have led to the establishment of a viable electricity market for private sector participation in generation expansion. These reforms enable a high potential for solar and new hydro technologies to enter the power market.

Patoma Admin by — July 16, 2021 in Insurance 0
South African unrest will push insured losses to $680m: reports

By admin

 

State-owned insurer Sasria has estimated that days of civil unrest across South Africa to drive insured losses of 10 billion rand ($683 million).

Sasria told Reuters that the losses would mostly stem from damage and theft from businesses, following widespread vandalism and looting, which has impacted thousands of properties and damaged major infrastructure.

The rioting was triggered by the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma, and has left more than 70 people dead so far.

Sasria was set up in 1974 after private insurers stopped underwriting political violence risks in South Africa, and so will be responsible for covering any losses arising from the unrest.

But Managing Director Cedric Masondo told Reuters that while the company has reinsurance cover that runs into the high single digits and can fund up to 10 billion rand of claims from its own balance sheet, it only covers customers up to a threshold of 500 million rand.

As a result, larger companies may have to deal with some of the loss costs themselves, if they have suffered significant damage.

With disruption now stretching into its sixth day, the South African government has sought to deploy about 25,000 troops to curb unrest, amid fears of food and fuel shortages.

The South African Insurance Association (SAIA) has welcomed the security interventions and expressed confidence in the ability of Sasria to provide for the anticipated claims.

“The Sasria model is a good example of how the public and private sectors can work together to provide solutions to individuals and businesses in South Africa,” the Association stated.

“Our member insurance companies and the broker fraternity, together with Sasria, will be working tirelessly to ensure that policyholders are assisted to get back on their feet as soon as possible.”

So far, most of the violence has centred around former President Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as Johannesburg and surrounding areas in the Gauteng province.

Patoma Admin by — July 16, 2021 in Insurance 0
Swiss Re forecasts global insurance premium to hit US$ 7 trn in 2021

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

Global insurance market premium recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic will be up by 5.8 percent to hit US $7 trillion by the end of 2021.

Swiss Re’s 2021 world insurance premium sigma report forecasts that global insurance premiums will follow this strong GDP growth, increasing by an expected 3.3 percent in 2021 to a total of US $6.9 trillion.

In addition, the report then forecasts another 3.9 percent of insurance premium growth in 2022 as well, which will take global premiums to just under US $7.2 trillion.

As ever, growth will differ depending on the maturity of a regions economic activity and the expected pace of its GDP growth, with the 2021 forecast suggesting that insurance premium growth will be 6.3 percent for China, 1.7 percent for the US, 2.8 percent in Western Europe and 5.6% for emerging markets.

As we’ve been saying since Spring 2020 when the pandemic began, a shock event such as COVID-19 was always going to drive heightened risk awareness and also some additional risk aversion in the world and Swiss Re acknowledges this in its new report.

The reinsurance firm said that, “A key opportunity for insurers is the positive development in consumer awareness, which has been cemented by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The sigma release demonstrates this in reporting that global health and protection-type insurance premiums grew by 1.9 percent and 1.7 percent respectively in 2020, which Swiss Re puts down to increased awareness of the value of health and protection-type products due to the pandemic.

Jerome Haegeli, Group Chief Economist at Swiss Re Institute, commented, “We expect the insurance industry to earn a record USD 7 trillion in premium by end of next year. The best preparation for the next economic shock is having economic buffers in place. However, fiscal and monetary buffers are being depleted, which means the private insurance sector is increasingly important. Narrowing protection gaps needs to become an economic policy goal.

“The economic upswing expected in 2021 and 2022 is on track to materialise, and this is a key factor for insurance premium growth across the globe. The main market to watch is China, where both economic and premium growth continue at a strong pace. Consumer awareness is clearly an important growth driver and this has been driven by the pandemic. Whether it is private medical insurance or supply chain interruption for businesses, people have become much more aware of what insurance is, and how it can help them to emerge resilient from such a crisis.”

John Chen, President of Swiss Re China, added, “The Chinese economic bounce-back will drive the recovery of the world economy and boost the development of the insurance industry in China, which will further improve the societal resilience and enable the high-quality development of both the insurance industry and the Chinese economy.

The 14th Five-Year Plan and other ambitious goals have outlined great growth opportunities and space for innovation. The carbon neutrality target is another key driver that enables the insurance industry to contribute more to the sustainable development of the economy. Swiss Re will continue to work with our partners and clients to close protection gaps and build societal resilience.”

Whenever the insurance market grows at pace the need for reinsurance risk capital to support primary companies in doing their business also increases.

Premium growth is set to increase for property lines of business as well and over the coming years premium growth in protecting catastrophe exposed property could be a major opportunity for third-party capital to support traditional companies in taking some of that risk off their books.

Aligned with this, climate risk perception is rapidly increasing and could also result in a shedding of risk by asset owners, holders and also insurers, with the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market and capital market investors well-positioned to assist and benefit from these trends.

Over recent years we have seen some companies shifting more catastrophe and climate related risks onto external capital partners and with premiums set to expand in insurance, along with new opportunities and business classes set to emerge, there is a strong chance traditional re/insurers look for even more capital support for their peak risks, to enable them to free up funding to underwrite emerging classes of risk and growth opportunities.

Patoma Admin by — July 16, 2021 in Insurance 0
Micro-Pension increases by 58.65% in April 2021

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

National Pension Commission, PenCom, says micro pension fund grew by a whopping 58.65 percent by April 2021

As of the end of December 2020, micro pension fund assets stood at N74.65 million and by the end of April 2021, the figure had increased to N118.43 million represent 58.65 percent

According to the various pension asset summary reports released by PenCom , Nigeria’s conventional pension assets have increased marginally by 0.75 percent, from N12.31 trillion as of December 31, 2020, to N12.4 trillion as of April 30, 2021.

The analysis shows that the fund 1 category’s net asset value grew by 12.21percent, while funds 2, 3 and 4 grew by 1.67 percent, 3.81percent, and 1.12 percent respectively.

Though micro pension funds are growing in leaps and bounds, not much information or data is available about them. Unlike the “conventional” pension funds, where the fund managers readily publish daily or weekly based price data, only a few micro pension funds have their prices being published.

According to information from the National Pension Commission, in the first quarter of 2021, 19 Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) registered 3,292 micro pension contributors. In the same period, N16.7 million was remitted to the Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) of 435 micro pension fund contributors.

Over 105 Micro Pension participants converted to Mandatory Contributory Pension Schemes (CPS), an event that involved the transfer of N963,136 to the respective Retirement Savings Accounts of the affected participants.

PenCom facilitating further growth
The highly impressive growth is going to be further buoyed by the recent change in the fee structure of micro pension funds released by the National Pension Commission

Patoma Admin by — July 16, 2021 in Pension 0