African Alliance, Guinea Insurance, others fined N74m

Five insurance companies have been fined N74m by the Nigerian Exchange for defaulting on filing their financial reports when due.

This was disclosed in the latest X-Compliance Report released by the local bourse on Friday.

X-Compliance Report is a transparency initiative of NGX Regulation Limited designed to maintain market integrity and protect investors by providing compliance-related information on all listed companies.

Companies listed on NGX must file their financial statements in a timely fashion per the Rules for Filing of Accounts and Treatment of Default Filing, Rulebook of NGX (Issuers’ Rules). Defaulting attracts fine.

According to the latest report, insurance firms such as Lasaco Assurance, Regency Alliance Insurance, Guinea Insurance Plc, Universal Insurance Plc, and African Alliance Insurance Plc were listed as defaulting in filing their 2023 Annual Financial Statement.

Lasaco was penalised to the tune of N8.7m for failing to file its 2023 AFS. The result was eventually submitted on September 25, 2024. Regency Alliance Insurance Plc was fined N7.8m for its results, which were filed on September 16, 2024.

Guinea Insurance was fined N3.4m for not filing its 2023 annual report within the stipulated time frame, and Universal Insurance Plc was fined N2.8m for the same reason. Their results were eventually submitted to the exchange on August 3 and July 28, 2024.

Universal Insurance was also fined N3m for not filing its unaudited financial statement for the first quarter of 2024. The report was eventually filed on July 30, 2024.

African Alliance Insurance Company was fined the highest amount of N48.6m for delays in filing its annual report for 2022, which was eventually filed on November 22, 2023. This was the last financial statement that it had filed with the exchange in over a year.

The board and management of African Alliance were recently sacked by the insurance sector regulator, the National Insurance Commission after it failed to meet its obligations to customers, especially annuitants.

NAICOM also appointed a new board/management to manage the affairs of the company and, above all, ensure the interests of policyholders, particularly annuitants, are safeguarded.

The appointed interim board and management members include Dr. Haruna Mustapha as chairman, Mr. Jacob Erhabor as MD/CEO, Mr. Wasiu Amao as executive director (technical), Ms. Oremeyi Longe as executive director (finance), Mr. Anthony Achebe as non-executive director, and Halimatu M. Khabeeb as non-executive director.

Before the sacking of the board and management, NAICOM instructed the Board of African Alliance Insurance Plc to address and settle all outstanding claims from customers and to present a turnaround plan due to concerns over delayed payments to annuitants.

Meanwhile, in the 2022 annual report filed with the local bourse, the directors of the company in their statement expressed concerns about the company as a going concern.

“As of 31 December 2022, the company had a negative insurance solvency margin of N4.04bn (2021: (N12.3bn)) and the total admissible assets less net insurance and investment contract liabilities amounted to a deficit of N29.8bn (2021: (N23.2bn)). The solvency margin is below the N2bn required for life insurance by NAICOM. The directors have set forth specific measures and actions to address this position and bring back the company and group to profit-making and improved solvency positions,” the directors said.