Anchor Insurance grows Premium Income to N3.5bn in 2018
MD/CEO Anchor Insurance Company Limited, Austine Ebose
Anchor Insurance Company Limited has improved on its premium income in the last one year raising it to N3.5 billion in 2018 from N2.2 billion it recorded same period in 2017.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Austine Ebose, said this during a chat with journalists in Lagos.
He said the performance is about 72 percent improvement from the last premium written, just as he commended his predecessor for doing a good job by keeping the company on a sound financial footing.
Ebose said the company has also improved on its ICT application after embarking on an audit to find out areas of problem on their IT facility, adding that after the audit they were able to fix what needed to be fixed which he said has helped them to improve their services delivery especially the Motor Insurance business.
He has also promised to pay dividends to the shareholders at the end of this year which has not been done for some years now.
According to him, “We have been able to improve on our premium income in the last one year by raising it to about N3.5bn from the N2.2bn it had hovered around each year before we came in. This is about 70 or 72 per cent improvement from the last premium written. This is the first time the Company will be hitting a premium income in the range of N3bn and above since it commenced business going to 30 years now.
“I must state that my predecessors did their very best to keep the company on the profit margin. However, when we came in, we challenged ourselves to do things differently for better results and the outcome has been a commendable one.
“The first thing we did when we came in was to carry out an ICT audit to find out lagging areas in terms of IT facility. In doing that, we found out that our online real-time was not good enough, so we audited our IT system. Presently, we have improved our services particularly our motor insurance business. What we also did was to look at our human capital and carried out re-engineering and re-organization without necessarily laying off people as the only option, although those close to retirement and others who did not fit into the fast moving train were excused from the system. In doing this, we understood that there were gaps which required that we brought in people to align with the vision we are driving.
“Our shareholders will be looking at receiving dividends at the end of the year. The external auditors, as I speak, are about concluding their work on our 2018 accounts. So, we cannot give exact figures yet. The audit will be completed very soon which will give accurate figures of what we did during the past year. However, like I had hinted earlier, since the existence of the company, the maximum premium the company has generated is N2.1bn or N2.2bn. This is the first time we are doing up to N3bn plus.”
On retail business especially in the area of micro-insurance, he said the company has gone bullish, adding that they are discussing with so banks that has insurance services related to them and other associations for collaboration.
“We have gone bullish in terms of our retail business in the area of micro-insurance policies. We have tried to create a scheme within the banking sector for all their products that have to do with credits and those facilities that are taken by bank customers. We are in discussion with so many banks that have insurance services related to them. We have also discussed with some traders’ associations and other associations we are collaborating with to see how we move our retail sales to the next level. We have also partnered with NEXIM Bank to ensure that those who are seeking for loans get the necessary insurance for it.
“Besides that, we have gone through the agricultural line and have had partnership agreements with some agricultural organizations and in the next quarter we will disclose what we have achieved. The third party motor insurance has always been very important to this company. We have gone into partnership with some frontline associations with critical mass and institutions of government to widen the market for the policy. We plan to replicate this across the federation. At the moment, we are heavily penetrating the North with this idea,” he added.
