Guinea Insurance Plc, one of the oldest insurance companies in Nigeria said it injected about N900 million as capital into its business in 2022 and is in the process of listing 1.8 billion shares.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the insurance company, Mr. Ademola Abidogun disclosed this at the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors’ (NAIPE) 2023 first quarter CEO’s Forum in Lagos.
Abidogun said the insurer has a lot of funds within its system and over N2billon cash under its management to do business.
He noted that the underwriting firm made the highest Gross Premium Written (GPI) of N1.4 billion in 2022, compared to the last ten years.
“We were also able to make underwriting profit. If you look at the statistics, Guinea insurance has consistently grown so much in its underwriting profit.
“When you check the financials, you will see that the core business of insurance is underwriting, which means; collect business, underwrite it and make profit,” he said.
According to Abidogun, the insurance company was working to improve its investment portfolio, as fund was essential to sustain a business.
The Managing director hinted that Guinea insurance’s claims payment method is one of the best in the market because the firm believes, one of the main reason for doing insurance business is to pay claims.
“If we pride ourself as one of the best in the industry in terms of claims payments, we must be able to pay claims after collecting people’s premium” Abidogun said.
According to him, while the underwriting firm had experienced some challenges few years ago in the market, it has been able to resuscitate its business between 2021 and 2022.
Abidogun noted that Guinea insurance also had to confront perception issues, because a lot of people think the insurer is a one man business, meanwhile it is a Plc with a very robust structure.
The managing director said that the insurance firm had started business well in year 2023 in terms of production and as at February, it had done over 300 percent of what it did same time last year.
“We will be able to deliver in terms of our plans for the year. The most important thing is for an organisation to have capacity, which has to do with financials and people driving the business and we will continue to evolve,” he said.

The management of Guinea Insurance PLC is repositioning the insurance company to ensure value creation and optimum returns to its shareholders. the Managing Director, Mr. Ademola Abidogun, said.
Speaking at the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors’ (NAIPE) first quarter 2023 CEOs Forum in Lagos recently, Abidogun said: “We have a very robust board and workforce that is made up of accountants, lawyers and other professionals with a very strong business experience working together to ensure we are where we are today.”
Abidogun said the company has invested so much in staff training and acquisition of technology, adding that currently “we have so many portals including the Third Party Portal which helps us in doing our Motor Business. Motor Business still remains the biggest of our products and we have partnership with a few brokers on that.”
According to him, “we are also getting new businesses from Brokers such as Marine Insurance for example. This segment is also growing despite the fact that there has been a lot of challenges in the areas of dollars and importation. Our oil and gas business portfolio too has also picked up because people are very passionate about insurance.”
On agric insurance, he said the Company is partnering with some international bodies to grow that segment.
He said the process of getting approval for Travel Insurance from NAICOM is ongoing.
Abidogun said the Company’s portal for its Motor and Marine insurance business is strengthening their partnership with some brokers, which he said have started patronizing them.
His words “The brokers partnership, our new business initiatives, our portal that we have for Motor and Marine insurances and some business with government agencies combined to ensure that we are getting value for our shareholders.”
In term of opening new branches, he said “We really don’t want to open a lot of branches but what we are doing is to have as many sales outlets as possible because to open new branch offices now is very expensive. We want to have sales outlets and well run central underwriting system and a central accounting system.
“Although we have few branches in strategic areas, we also want to open more sales outlets in strategic areas to complement the existing branch and enhance our operations in selling most of our products and repositioning our brands there.”

Insurance and pension operators in Nigeria will be attending the BusinessToday conference holding on Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at Oriental Hotel in Lagos.

The annual conference usually deliberate and find solutions to issues that affect the insurance and pension sectors in the country.

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the National Pension Commission (PenCom) have endorsed the upcoming 2023 annual conference of BusinessToday Communication Limited.

The two agencies will lead other professionals to the conference to discuss burning issues in the insurance and pension sectors.

The Conference which is the seventh edition in the series, has the theme: “Consumer Satisfaction In Deepening Penetration In Insurance And Pension Sectors.”

The keynote Speaker is the Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise [CPPE], Dr. Muda Yusuf, is expected to be the Keynote Speaker while the Chairman of the occasion is Babajide Olatunde- Agbeja, Chairman Boff and Company Insurance Brokers Limited.

The Commissioner for National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Sunday Thomas is the special guest of honour.

A statement by the Editor-In-Chief/Chief Executive Officer, BusinessToday, Nkechi Naeche-Esezobor, said experts drawn from insurance and pension sectors would be on hand to speak on the theme of the conference.

The Director General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar; the Chairman Nigerian Insurers Association, Segun Omoshein ( NIA) and President of Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, (PenOp),) Mr. Olumide Oyetan, have all confirmed their attendance at the conference.

Similarly, Pension Guru and former Managing Director/ CEO, Access Pension Fund Custodian Limited, Mrs. Idu Okwuosa- Okeahialami and the Director General NIA, Mrs Yetunde Ilori among others, will be in attendance.

Others expected are: Association of Pension Desk Practitioners of Nigeria; Amagamated Traders Association Alakoro Market; Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Trade Union Congress, Nigerian Labour Congress, Association of Senior Staff of Banks Insurance and other Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Consumer Awareness Organisation, Market Women, People Living With Disability in Lagos, Nigerian Port Authority and Students of insurance (Laspotech).