All Posts in "Insurance"

Sunu Group appoints Alexandre Atte Ahui as Chairman

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

SUNU Participations Holding has appointed Alexandre Atté Ahui as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the remainder of his current term of office as Director.

Ahui is replacing the founder of the group, Papa Pathé Dione, who passed away on 12 January 2023.

Atté Ahui started his career in 1973 at the Union des Assurances de Côte d’Ivoire, a subsidiary of UAP. The insurance professional then served as General Manager of AXA Côte d’Ivoire and SUNU Vie Côte d’Ivoire.

Issofa Nchare joined the Board as an independent Director. A lawyer and economist, I. Nchare previously worked as Head of the Insurance Division in the Cameroonian Ministry of Finance and as Secretary General of CIMA from 2015 to 2020.

With these changes, SUNU’s Board of Directors is now made up of:

Atté Ahui, Chairman Société Financière Dione, Director with Anta-Caroline Dione as its permanent representative SUNU Finances Holding, Director with Patrice Desgranges as its permanent representative Papa-Demba Diallo, Director Federico Roman, Director
Christian de Boissieu, Independent Director
Issofa Nchare, Independent Director

Patoma Admin by — March 20, 2023 in Insurance 0
Global insurance brokers market expected to hit $105.33bn in 2023

By Favour Nnabugwu
The global insurance brokers market is expected to grow from $98.82 billion in 2022 to $105.33 billion in 2023 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.6 percent.
The insurance brokers market is expected to grow to $130.35 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 5.5 percent
The countries covered in the insurance brokers market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, and USA.
The insurance brokers market consists of sales of insurance products by entities that act as intermediaries (i.e., agents or brokers) in selling annuities and insurance policies.
This market excludes the direct selling of insurance products by insurance companies. The value of the market is based on the fees or commissions paid to brokers by the insured, both commercial and personal.
According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) of India, the Life Insurance Corporation of India sold 2.17 crore insurance policies in the fiscal year 2021-2022 which was an 3.54% increase from previous year’s 2.10 crore policies. Therefore, the increasing demand for insurance policies drives the growth of the insurance brokerage market.
The market value includes the value of related goods sold by the service provider or included within the service offering. Only goods and services traded between entities or sold to end consumers are included
An insurance broker is a person who is authorized to sell insurance and frequently collaborates with numerous insurance providers to provide customers with a range of products.
North America was the largest region in the insurance brokers market in 2022. Western Europe was the second largest market in the insurance brokers market.
The regions covered in the insurance brokers market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.
The main types of insurance brokers are life insurance, general insurance, health insurance, others. Life insurance in the insurance brokers market refers to the contract between the insurer and the insurance policyholder that promises to pay a total sum of money upon the death of an insured person. The services are offered in various modes, such as offline, and online mode. These are used by corporate, and individuals.
The increasing demand for insurance policies is expected to fuel the growth of the insurance brokers market over the coming years. The demand for insurance policies has risen due to the availability of security services and customized financial services to clients.
The impact of COVID-19 is predicted to limit the growth of the insurance brokers market over the forecast period. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of millions of people, affected supply chains & business sectors, and disrupted economies worldwide.
The coronavirus outbreak has several impacts on the insurance sector, from employee and business continuity concerns to customer care considerations to the financial outlook. For instance, the Indian insurance industry’s productivity has been hit by 30% in March 2020.
The pandemic has pushed the insurance industry to heavily depend on digitalization for selling new policies, setting up claims, and making other transactions. Therefore, the impact of COVID-19 restraints the growth of the insurance brokers market.
The integration of AI in the insurance sector is a key trend gaining popularity in the insurance brokers market. The combined power of AI and human creativity enables the Intelligent Broker, an automation programme for the insurance industry. Brokers will be able to resolve complicated obstacles, produce innovative products and services, and join or build new markets.
In addition to this, AI in the insurance industry will improve customer service and prevent customers from fraud. In 2021, 60% of the insurance companies are targeting AI to be used in decision making and to reduce manual input, which has doubled in the last two years.
Patoma Admin by — March 18, 2023 in Insurance 0
Guinea Insurance revamps operation to boost profitability 

By Favour Nnabugwu
The management of Guinea Insurance PLC has assured policyholders that the company has repositioned to make profit in 2023.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Ademola Abidogun, disclosed this at this year’s Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editor (NAIPE) first quarter CEOs’ Forum with Guinea Insurance Plc in Lagos.
He said in the last three years, the company has reduced its losses from N700 million to N200 million to N20 million.
According to him, you will discover that based on what we are doing now, we will make profit by the end of the 2023 financial year.
“Moving from the negative position that we were, we have done a lot in terms of shaping the company and we are still going to do a lot this year in terms of revamping the entire operations of the company, in terms of the outlook, and in terms of being more visible.
“Our priority for this year is to ensure that we deliver profit to all the stakeholders. The era of making loses is gone. This year we will continue with the work we have done which we have started seeing results and this will lead us to delivering value to all our stakeholders because that is the time you can talk about people coming to invest in the company.
“We are also working on the negative mind-set of the people about the company. We operate an open administration, and we do not do things that are against the law”, Mr. Abidogun stated.
Speaking further he said, “This year we have started on a very good note. We are doing over 400 per cent of our production compared to the same period last year, and we have not even gotten to the end of the first quarter of the year.
 With what we have done so far and our plans going forward, I believe we will be able to deliver value to our shareholders because it is only when you are able to deliver value and make profit that people will want to come and invest in your business. As a matter of urgency, I believe this year we can do that,” Guinea Insurance boss added.
In the area of corporate governance, he said “We pride ourselves as a good corporate governance company by complying fully with relevant regulations.
 We have zero tolerance for regulatory infractions. It is something that everybody is aware of and we always take steps to ensure that we do not fall foul of the law in anyway.
“We are committed to reduce expenses and increase turnover, increase topline and manage underwriting properly with proper reinsurance. We are also looking at businesses that we take and we make sure that we don’t just take any business
We are very optimistic and very deliberate in our analysis. We track expenses, track businesses that we do, we do a lot of analysis to ensure that we change the story.
“We have people who are business-driven that have the interest in the business, who are ready to push us to the level we want to be as a business,” Mr. Abidogun said.
Patoma Admin by — March 16, 2023 in Insurance 0
Merger & Acquistion deal increase by 23℅ in 2022

By Favour Nnabugwu
A total of Merger & Acquistion, M&A, 242 deals were concluded globally by the end of June 2022 against 197 a year earlier, increasing by 23 per cent. After a slowdown in 2021 according to Atlas Magazine
M&A operations have also picked up in the Middle East and Africa with 16 deals signed in the first half of 2022 compared to 12 in the same period of 202.
 In Africa, most buyers are from the continent: four from Côte d’Ivoire, three from South Africa and two from Kenya. In Asia Pacific, the number of completed transactions jumped from 24 to 27 during the same period.
According to Clyde & Co, insurers have focused on external growth opportunities to address the severe economic pressures of inflation, rising energy costs and recession.
The number of deals valued at more than $1 billion remained relatively stable at 13 in the first half of 2022 compared to 14 a year earlier.
With a value of $7.7 billion, the acquisition of the US insurer Athene Holding by Apollo Global Management is considered the largest transaction of the year so far. At the beginning of 2022, the M&A market seemed to be building on the momentum of 2021.
The continuation of a favorable environment should logically lead to the same results: significant resources, high level of available capital, good financial health, still low debt costs, willingness of strategic players to accelerate their transformation and search for new growth levers.
Unfortunately, the outbreak of a serious geopolitical crisis in February 2022 has strained the entire global economic sphere. As a result, the M&A market sustained a sharp 29 per cent drop in total deal value in the first quarter of 2022.
According to Dealogic’s data, M&A transactions account for a volume of $1.010 billion compared to $1.430 billion, at the end of March 2021. The decline is due to market volatility related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and disruption of supply chains. Notwithstanding this difficult environment, specialists expect M&A activity in the insurance market to keep up the momentum in 2022, with the number of transactions expected to exceed 420 worldwide.
Patoma Admin by — March 15, 2023 in Insurance 0
Guinea Insurance injects N900m capital into business

By Favour Nnabugwu
Guinea Insurance Plc, one of the oldest insurance companies in Nigeria said it injected about N900 million as capital into its business in 2022 and is in the process of listing 1.8 billion shares.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the insurance company, Mr. Ademola Abidogun disclosed this at the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors’ (NAIPE) 2023 first quarter CEO’s Forum in Lagos.
Abidogun said the insurer has a lot of funds within its system and over N2billon cash under its management to do business.
He noted that the underwriting firm made the highest Gross Premium Written (GPI) of N1.4 billion in 2022, compared to the last ten years.
“We were also able to make underwriting profit. If you look at the statistics, Guinea insurance has consistently grown so much in its underwriting profit.
“When you check the financials, you will see that the core business of insurance is underwriting, which means; collect business, underwrite it and make profit,” he said.
According to Abidogun, the insurance company was working to improve its investment portfolio, as fund was essential to sustain a business.
The Managing director hinted that Guinea insurance’s claims payment method is one of the best in the market because the firm believes, one of the main reason for doing insurance business is to pay claims.
“If we pride ourself as one of the best in the industry in terms of claims payments, we must be able to pay claims after collecting people’s premium” Abidogun said.
According to him, while the underwriting firm had experienced some challenges few years ago in the market, it has been able to resuscitate its business between 2021 and 2022.
Abidogun noted that Guinea insurance also had to confront perception issues, because a lot of people think the insurer is a one man business, meanwhile it is a Plc with a very robust structure.
He said that the insurance firm had started business well in year 2023 in terms of production and as at February, it had done over 300 percent of what it did same time last year.
“We will be able to deliver in terms of our plans for the year. The most important thing is for an organisation to have capacity, which has to do with financials and people driving the business and we will continue to evolve,” he said.
Patoma Admin by — March 10, 2023 in Insurance 0
Guinea Insurance assures of improve claims settlement service delivery

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The management of Guinea Insurance Plc has said that the company will continue to satisfy it’s teeming customers and the insuring public in claims settlement and service delivery.
Accordingly, the company will continue to settle all genuine claims promptly and speedily.
Managing Director of the company, Mr. Ademola Abidogun, disclosed this to insurance and pension journalists at the Quarterly CEO forum sponsored by Guinea Insurance Plc in Lagos.
While disclosing the claims payment history of Guinea Insurance, Abidogun said that the company paid total claims of N263 million in 2020.
The company also paid total claims of N263 million in 2021, even as it paid total claims of N165 million in 2022.
Abidogun also disclosed that the company will return to profit terrain in 2023 as loss after tax has drastically reduced to N20 million in 2022 from N700 million recorded in 2020.
Abidogun said: “Guinea Insurance Plc has continued to make underwriting profit every year. If you look at how the loss after tax has reduced in the last three years, from N700 million to N200 million to N20 million, you will discover that based on what we are doing now, we will not make profit by the end of the 2023 financial year.
“We are committed to reduce expenses and increase turnover, increase topline and manage underwriting properly with proper reinsurance. We are also looking at businesses that we take and we make sure that we don’t just take any business. We are very optimistic and very deliberate in our analysis.
We track expenses, track businesses that we do , we do a lot of analysis to ensure that we change the story.
“We have been paying claims promptly and will continue to do so going forward. What we want to do is to be more visible to the insuring public and meet all their insurance needs.”
On the positive strides of the company,
Abidogun noted that Guinea Insurance staff has been outstanding even as he commended them for being very competent and dependable.
He said: “I will also commend the staff for the good work they are doing. If the people are not there to do the work,
if people are not connected to the mission of the board, there is nothing anybody can do and it will hamper the progress of the company.
“And the way we are going now, we believe that we will get to that height and we will continue to grow the business.
We have been able to deliver value
in terms of CSR too to the community where our head office is located.”

Going forward, Abidogun noted that “It is very important that we position ourselves so that everybody will be able to relate with us and do business with us.”

Patoma Admin by — February 24, 2023 in Insurance 0
Africa Specialty Risks officially becomes a Lloyd’s coverholder

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

Pan-African-focused reinsurance group Africa Specialty Risks (ASR) has been approved as a Lloyd’s coverholder.

ASR provides risk transfer solutions to local and global customers across the African continent, giving them the confidence to grow their businesses sustainably. It is backed by Helios Investment Partners’ Fund IV, benefitting from its reach across Africa and its knowledge and experience in key markets.

As a coverholder of the world’s leading specialist insurance and reinsurance market, ASR can work with Lloyd’s syndicates and manage delegated authorities for specialist lines of business commencing with political violence and terrorism. It can also leverage Lloyd’s brand and licenses to bring much-needed Lloyd’s capacity to Africa.

ASR received its coverholder status through sponsorship by Atrium, a managing agent at Lloyd’s.

Stuart Harmer, terrorism and political violence underwriter at Atrium, commented: “Atrium is extremely proud to be a leading supporter of Africa Specialty Risk writing political violence business and very much look forward to a successful partnership as ASR continues to demonstrate market leading knowledge and expertise.”

Amit Khilosia, Lloyd’s head of Africa, added: “I’m extremely proud to welcome ASR to Lloyd’s as a coverholder. This demonstrates our shared commitment to Africa, and I very much look forward to working with ASR to deliver efficient access to Lloyd’s products and capacity.”

What it means to be a Lloyd’s coverholder
ASR strives to provide capacity to Africa from re/insurers with strong security and robust credit ratings.

Martin Boreham, director of underwriting and head of liability at ASR, said the coverholder status enables ASR to enhance and complement Lloyd’s existing footprint in and across the African continent.

“ASR is the only Africa-focused re/insurance capacity provider with a comprehensive corporate and specialty risk mitigation offering,” Boreham said.

Brian McGregor, director of underwriting and head of property at ASR, added that becoming an approved Lloyd’s coverholder is essential to bring much-needed insurance capacity to Africa.

“This is mutually beneficial, broadening Lloyd’s reach in Africa and allowing ASR to deepen its relationship with the world’s leading insurance market,” McGregor said.

Africa Speciality Risks
Africa Speciality Risks joins businessnetwork
ASR became a Lloyd’s coverholder after joining the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC), the Commonwealth’s business network with over 100 business and government strategic partners from 31 countries and territories.

As a member of the CWEIC, ASR participated in a market visit to Ghana and Nigeria led by CWEIC chairman Lord Marland.

“Thanks to the meetings organized by CWEIC, we had the privilege of meeting some of the most senior public and private business leaders in both countries,” ASR said in a statement.

“At ASR, we are passionate about supporting businesses in managing risks associated with their operations and investments in Africa, including Ghana and Nigeria. The visit provided us with a fantastic opportunity to showcase our executive team and explain ASR’s risk assessment methodology, which we apply throughout the economic life cycle of each country.”

Patoma Admin by — February 23, 2023 in Insurance 0
NAIPE hosted Guinea Insurance CEO, Pius Edobor in Lagos

National Association of Insurance & Pension Editors, NAIPE had a CEO forum with the Managing dire for of Guinea Insurance, Mr Pius Edbor in Lagos today

 

CAPTION:

R-L: Chinenye Nwankwo, Company Secretary, Ademola Abidogun, Managing Director, Pius Edobor, Executive Director, Finance & Accounts, Nkechi Naeche-Esezobor, NAIPE Chairperson – Publisher & Editor at Businesstoday

 

Patoma Admin by — February 23, 2023 in Insurance 0
South African insurers withdraw coverage of power grid

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

Several insurers have withdrawn the coverage for electricity grid failures due to sharp increase in rolling power outages in South Africa

The insurers include Hollard, Momentum, Outsurance and Santam.

Unlisted insurance giant Hollard has informed its clients that it won’t be covering any losses caused by the collapse of the national grid. “While grid failure remains unlikely, it is unfortunately now a possibility and reinsurers have indicated that they will not provide reinsurance cover in this eventuality,” Hollard spokesperson Warwick Bloom told Moneyweb.

Santam, South Africa’s biggest short-term insurance group, said that it would, from 1 April 2023, cease providing cover for electricity grid failure claims. This will be applied on the renewal of policies and to all new policies.

“The unprecedented levels of load shedding and pressure from global reinsurers that require Santam to reduce its exposure to business interruption claims arising from failure of public utilities and public telecommunications has led to the insurer implementing a general electricity grid failure exclusion on all policies,” it said.

South Africa has faced load shedding every day for the past three months, with the electricity public utility Eskom implementing the continuous rolling power outages to prevent the grid from collapsing while it overhauls its aged coal plants and other infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance has said there could be no intervention in insurers changing their position on covering load shedding or grid collapse events because of the contractual nature of the insurance policies.

Patoma Admin by — February 13, 2023 in Insurance 0
:Digitisation of motor insurance policies curb forgery in Cote D’Ivoire

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

Motor insurance is undergoing a transformation in Côte d’Ivoire with the introduction in January 2023 of digital auto insurance policies.

Checks carried out by the Insurance Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance have led to the detection of forged auto insurance certificates both in Abidjan and in the interior of the country. The forgeries negatively impact the image of the insurance sector.

The digital platform centralises and offers insurance policies in electronic format by insurers while ensuring adherence to the minimum premium rate for compulsory motor third-liability insurance.

The president of the Association of Insurance Companies of Côte d’Ivoire (ASA-CI) Mamadou Koné, explained that it is a question of implementing a secure server for the generation of encrypted electronic certificate numbers with encryption of all transactions.

“This platform should be able to be interconnected with the information systems of key partners (Quipux, Sicta, Police, Gendarmerie, National Brown Card Office) to mutually expose and consume services while ensuring interactions and transactions between them,” he said

Patoma Admin by — February 13, 2023 in Insurance 0