Ebere Nwoji
NEM Insurance Plc said it grew its profit before tax by 290.8 percent to N2.19billion for the year ended December 31st 2016.
NEM insurance group, which includes NEM Insurance Nigeria Plc and NEM Insurance Ghana, now known as RegencyNem Insurance Ghana Ltd, also during the period, grew its profit before tax by 258.3 percent to N2.14 billion .
Similarly, the company’s gross premium during the period under review, witnessed 4 percent growth to hit N10.8 billion as against gross premium of N10.3 billion recorded in 2015.
The group’s gross premium for the period however witnessed 1.3 percent slide from N10.9billion in 2015 to N10.8 billion in 2016.
Announcing these at the 47th annual general meeting of the company held in Lagos recently, NEM Insurance Chairman, Fidelis Ayebae, explained that following the directive of the National Insurance Commission Ghana to increase the share base of insurance companies from $1million to $5million, NEM Insurance board and management, decided to merge its operations with Regency Alliance Ghana Ltd.
He said the new name of the merged entity is RegencyNem Insurance Ghana Ltd.
According to him, as a result of the merger, the status of NEM Insurance Ghana Ltd has changed from being a subsidiary to an associate as its stake in the company is now 40per cent.
He noted that the financial assets for the NEM Insurance group and that of the NEM Insurance company for the year under review improved by 8.5 percent and 17.9per cent respectively over that of the preceding year. While the total assets and total equity of the group improved by 16.1 and 19.4 respectively, adding that those of the parent company improved by 20.2 and 19.7 respectively.
Earnings per share (EPS) for the year was 34 kobo; an increase of 154.7 percent over that of the preceding year which was 14 kobo.
On the company’s claims experience for the year, the NEM Insurance boss said: “There was a notable improvement in our claim experience during the period under review. Claim expenses incurred by the group and the parent company N2.67billion during the reporting year, an improvement of 32.6 percent and 29.7per cent respectively.
According to him, in the previous year, the absolute figures were N3.96billion and N3.8billion respectively. Gross Claims ratio was 37.7percent for the group and parent company, while that of the preceding year was 43.9 percent and 43.3 percent respectively. The Net Claims ratio was 31.4 for the group and parent company, while that of the previous year was 46.3 percent and 46.6 respectively.
He said as a result of this performance, the board has recommended a dividend of 8 kobo per share for the shareholders.
Also speaking at the AGM, the Group Managing Director of the company, Mr. Tope Smart said that despite the vagaries of business operating environment, in Nigeria during the period under review, NEM Insurance management, remained focused in the pursuit of its ultimate goal of industry leadership.
“We have continued to subject our operations to period review with a view to improving our turnaround time for the ultimate benefit of our customers. In our determination to deepen market penetration, we have opened several retail outlets whilst a good number of retail products have been rolled out in order to meet the needs of the insuring public”, he stated.
