EndSARS: NIA Pays N11bn Claims, Rise GPW by 10%

Mohammed O. Taoheed reports,

The Nigerian Insurance Industry has had a 10.24 per cent growth as record in its Gross Premium Written, GPW, going up to N560 billion in 2021 from N508 billion taken in 2020.

This follows after the sector facilitated a payment of N11.1 billion claims to insured that suffered various losses during the EndSARS protests.

Mr. Ganiyu Musa, the Chairperson of the Nigeria Insurers Association, or NIA, made this known during the Annual General Meeting of the association held in Lagos State.

He stated that the sector made the count despite the numerous loopholes that confronted the sector in the period under review.

According to Musa: “One of the main objects of NIA is promotion of ethical conduct among members and this includes payment of all genuine claims. Pursuant to this, the association took very keen interest in developments around the #EndSars protests in October 2020, especially as they relate to payment of claims for insured losses. I am happy to report that as at December 2021, our member companies have paid over N11.1billion claims to insured. The payments cut across several classes of insurance business such as fire/burnt site, vandalization, burglary attack, as well as loss of cash.

“The Nigerian insurance industry was not insulated from developments in the general economic space and had its fair share of the challenges facing the larger financial market during the year under review. With epileptic power supply and an astronomic rise in the energy cost against the background of failing infrastructure, insurance companies had to contend with increasing cost of operations. These and many other factors including the multiplicity of taxes, contributed to affect the bottom line of insurance companies.

He confirmed: “Notwithstanding these challenges, the insurance industry continues to perform its statutory role of financial intermediation and business restoration. The volume of business written by member companies grew from N508 billion in 2020 to about N560 billion in 2021, representing an increase of 10 percent.”