AIICO Grows Insurance Premium to ₦17.6bn, Rolls Out Digital Channels
AIICO Insurance Plc has bolstered its insurance premium by 23% to ₦17.6 billion in the first quarter of financial year 2020.
The growth in insurance premium written in the first quarter came amidst global economic disruptions.
Meanwhile, the company said it has rolled out additional digital channels for the convenience and safety of its customers.
The management reiterated that AIICO’s employees have embraced the Work-From-Home (WFH) concept.
In its Q1 results, the firm’s gross written premiums surged to ₦17.6 billion for first quarter of 2020 from ₦14.3 billion in the comparable period.
In statement, AIICO sad that the growth was driven by the group’s sustained positive performance which included retail, corporate and institutional businesses.
The group also recorded a 24% increase in pretax profit of ₦1.44 billion, compared to ₦1.17 billion in Q1 2019.
Its profit after tax (PAT) expanded by 129% to ₦1.88 billion, compared to ₦0.82 billion attained in first quarter 2019.
Commenting on the result, Babatunde Fajemirokun, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the firm, said that AIICO delivered excellent first quarter results.
Fajemirokun noted that this demonstrated the overall strength of the company and its ability to continue to meet the obligations to stakeholders even in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“We are living in a period of uncharted waters and recognise the situation presents both challenges and opportunities.
“Our resilient business continuity plans and robust technology infrastructure ensured we remained operational throughout the lockdown period.
“We have rolled out additional digital channels for the convenience and safety of our customers, and our employees have embraced the Work-From-Home (WFH) concept – indeed this is the new normal,” he said.
According to him, the firm recorded strong growth in its retail life business, which grew by 34% to ₦10.97 billion from ₦8.2 billion in Q1 2019; and an increase of 6% in its corporate and institutional business to ₦6.2 billion from ₦5.9 billion.
Fajemirokun explained that within the period under review, the group’s balance sheet improved with total assets growing by 11 % to ₦176 billion, compared to ₦159 billion in Dec 2019.
He added that shareholders’ funds also rose by 0.28 % to ₦27.99 billion from ₦27.91 billion in December, 2019.
The Managing Director stated that insurance has a critical role to play in the economy and business environment in which we operate.
“With the advent of this pandemic, we are seeing increasing requests from corporations in Nigeria trying to understand how insurance can be deployed as a strategy for building resilience within their businesses.
“On the retail side, we are seeing new trends emerge; one of which is the shift towards a low touch world, where close-contact interaction is discouraged.
“In response, we are positioning to take advantage of these trends and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to reshape and disrupt the way we operate, interact and our go-to-market strategy.
“I am, however, confident that we will get through this difficult times and emerge stronger,” Fajemirokun said.
AIICO grows insurance premium to ₦17.6bn, rolls out digital channels.
