Ebere Nwoji
Issues bothering on insurance expense allocation and associated risks of how best to model the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of insurance service expenses and other operating expenses, and still achieve fairness, transparency, comparability and consistency in financial reporting by insurers and reinsurers in Nigeria formed the thrust of roundtable discussion organised by the Mettlehouse Consulting limited (MHCL) in Lagos.
The discourse which has the theme, “Resolving IFRS 17 Insurance Service Expense Allocation Challenges in Financial Reporting,” engaged industry stakeholders’; IFRS 17 steering committee members, implementation advisors, actuaries, IT experts, auditors, and executives of insurers and reinsurers in robust discuss on the apparent challenges of expense allocation and data capture, against the significant variation of IFRS 17 requirements.
In his welcome address at the round table discussion, the chief Executive Officer of Mettlehouse Consulting, Barineka Thompson, highlighted some of the key objectives of the discussion as appraisal of IFRS 4 and IFRS 17 requirements on expense modelling, identifying IT and data capture format, and recommending best practices for harmonisation, comparability and consistency of expense allocation across underwriting companies in the insurance industry.
Speaking during his keynote address, the commissioner for Insurance, Sunday Olorundare Thomas said, “The topic for discussion was of utmost significant in the realm of insurance accounting and financial reporting as the adoption of IFRS 17 represents a paradigm shift in the accounting standards for insurance contracts, and its implementation has presented the industry with formidable challenges, particularly in relation to the allocation of insurance service expenses.“
