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32 THISDAY • WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015 BUSINESSWORLD NEWS NAICOM Dissolves Board of IEI, Appoints Interim Board Ebere Nwoji Insurance industry regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has announced the dissolution of the Board of International Energy Insurance (IEI) and Mhas set up a three-member interim board to oversee the affairs of the company while necessary investigation is being conducted. Announcing the dissolution, NAICOM ‘s spokesman Rasaaq Salami said as part of the commission’s intervention, the chief executive officer and some key officers of the company would proceed on leave to pave way for a thorough investigation of the affairs of the company. “The action is pursuant to the powers conferred on the commission by enabling laws to intervene in the affairs of the company as a result of financial reporting failures, allegations made against some of the directors, and board squabbles necessitating regulatory action in the interest of policyholders and other stakeholders of the company. He said members of the interim board include the former Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), Muhammad Ahmad, who will serve as its chairman, a former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Daisy Ekineh and a onetime acting Managing Director of Societe Bancaire Nigeria Ltd (now Unity Bank Plc in Consolidation), Mrs. Bridget Ibiyemi Adeyinka. Salami said the board is mandated to conduct forensic investigation into the affairs of the company and identify factors and persons responsible for the erosion of shareholders’ value. “The appointment which takes immediate effect shall be for an initial period of six months, subject to renewal, if necessary”, he said. Leadway Assurance Launches Family Product Leadway Assurance Company Limited has launched a new Life product named the Leadway Family Benefit Plan Plus (LFBPP). The product is a multi-life policy designed to cover funeral expenses for the assured lives (spouse, parents and/or parents-in-law that are named in the policy) and the policy holder (person who purchased the policy). The policy helps to alleviate and bury the worries associated with the funerals for elderly loved ones. Giving details of the new product, Head, Life Retail, Mr. Femi Adebayo, explained that the policy provided funeral benefits in respect of all the assured lives as long as their death preceded that of the policyholder. The policy also provided other benefits including offering additional monthly payments to the beneficiaries of the policyholder in the event of his demise. The Family Benefit Plan Plus, he said, was one of the ways in which Leadway Assurance was making life beautiful for its customers. Also speaking at the product launch held at the Corporate office of Leadway Assurance in Lagos on Wednesday, the General Manager, Life Division, Mr. Shadrack Sivhugwana said he expected that the “demand for Funeral insurance will be the main driver of insurance growth in Africa in the next couple years.” He urged the public to take advantage of the new product and be prepared when the inevitable happened. Established over 45 years ago, Leadway is a composite insurance company underwriting both Life and General Insurance business with 23 branches spread across Nigeria. PRODUCT LAUNCH L-R:Head, Mass Market Segment, Etisalat, ldowu Adesokan; Chief Marketing Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Francesco Angelone; Manager, High Value Prepaid, Chinelo Mbanefo and Director, Consumer Segment, Oluwole Rawa at the launch of Etisalat Easylife 4.0 limited Edition in Lagos...recently abiodun ajala ODUKHALE: RETAIL INSURANCE IS THE ONLY WAY TO DEVELOP NIGERIAN INSURANCE INDUSTRY Toyota or Honda, it is your choice, it depends on what you want you cannot say this product is a better product .programme withdrawal, sets of payment coming over a period guaranteed .Annuity may be for life so they are different programmes even in some countries abroad where they used to have annuity alone , they are now encouraging programme withdrawal also. So let the people make up their minds on what they want. Every market should give people opportunity of a choice. So I think is good for our system to have annuity and programme withdrawal let the people make up their mind on what they want. And they are not very complicated programmes so you can read it. Get conversant with whatever you want. So there is space for everybody.Some people are happy with their programme withdrawal, some people are happy with their annuity. Each time you discuss with players in other Industry like banks,they keep on saying that insurance industry has a lot of fringe players.They feel that the best way to grow the market is consolidation through mergers and acquisitions what is your view on that? I think you may not be totally wrong if you say that we still have a good number of insurance companies.But you know sometimes in some economies,you have insurance companies that want to do only one mono product. Now should their capital be the same with the ones that want to insure plane? I don’t think so. So it is not just size , you may have your niche, like you know in the banking now you have national bank , you have international bank with different capital base, an insurance company may say I want to do this kind of product only, I think they should be able to have choice you do that one product, you specialise on it and be a master on it. The regulator prefers industry advertisement to product advertisement, what s your position on that? When you talk about insurance product, you are talking about insurance industry. It is the same subject.when you talk about insurance industry or say buy insurance, it doesn’t really hit it until you talk about a product, when you talk about the product people can have a kind of connection with the production because that product is the something that suits them. But if you just talk about insurance, it is okey but you may not get a kind of impact like when you talk about our Family Benefit Plus. Now you may say do I need this product or not,you may ask yourself this kind of question but when you talk about insurance, you may say okey insurance but I will tell you that as much as insurance companies advertise any oftheir products, it is a plus for the insurance industry. There has been a lot of reforms in the insurance industry particularly from the National Insurance Commission and one of them is the No premium No Cover and the Risk Based Supervision I will like you to access how far this has impacted on the industry? I think we have a very strong vibrant NAICOM now and I think most of us in the industry are very happy with our commission, they are pushing us very hard but they are pushing us to the right direction. Now we have overcome the issue of no premium no cover, that has been an issue the insurance industry has been battling with for years now. But now the commission has come up with something that is working beautifully well.Yes you still see a bit of outstanding here and there or whatever but it is something we can manage. Now Risk Based Supervision, that is where we are all going into right now, that is where the world is also right now, because you should look at the key risk that affects a particular company and target that area, that is what they do abroad right now. You know, you may look at this extra company,they do a lot of this product, let me look at that, are they doing it very well, let me focus on that and you narrow on that and look at it very well. Now for instance, if you have a new product, lets say annuity is new in the Industry and you have motor business which is as old as it is , you are not going to spend the same length of time inspecting the insurance company’s book on motor and on annuity business, that is it so you focus on areas where there is competition of risks as you see it.So when you are inspecting or you are looking at companies, you look at companies differently because you look at areas of the company where you see challenges or where you think that you need to work on and you focus on that area.If you go to another company they have a different issue, you focus on that area so I think it is very positive and it is going on right. The issue of capacity in oil and gas business underwriting in Nigeria has been a recurring issue even with the oil and gas pull formed by the industry. In the face of the pull can you say the Industry can underwrite oil and gas business 100 percent? Every business that comes to Nigeria we underwrite hundred percent.When we issue a policy in the market, we sign the policy hundred percent so I don’t see the need for cry about oil and gas its not different from like when we are insuring a big building, or a marine business or a marine hall business which we sign hundred percent also so I don’t see the cry about oil and gas. In every business we do reinsurance and where we have the excess that is above our capacity, we reinsure the business but we do the business hundred percent. What is the future of the industry like More competitors are coming into the industry I mean foreign players are coming into the industry what does this portend to the future of the industry? It is a bright future when more people come. they will throw more capital into the business and make the business more competitive and tough and they will raise the barrier to entry which is good because they are coming with a lot of capital. So it will take the industry to a different level. So I don’t see any thing negative in that. The foreign players, are they in any way a threat to the local players ? I think we will all co exist together. It will not be easy except if we too are very lazy but at the end of the day, the consumer will get a better product because there will be competition but if the local players are not up to it, okey that is their own challenge. And if they don’t do the business very well, that is their headache all these things are just for me looking at the consumer, because if you are buying any insurance product now, you are buying it from a local or foreign company what do you care for when you have a claim, your claim is paid,is that not what you care for? that is what matters, also there will be regulation and the regulators will like to make sure that people play by the books.It is good for us to develop strong local companies because our companies can also go abroad and be champion abroad but we should get there but is not just by saying we want to play because you are a Nigerian you must do it properly, you must have a structure and build a good company is possible but not just by fiat, you must do your product very well respond to people very well. Leadway used to be a company in Kaduna before we started from the north, we were local company in the north in Kaduna but we came here,we have to prove ourselves to also exist here and be accepted in the market here.So be it local, be it international be it anything you must serve the people properly, you must sell your product so well that they will believe in you and deliver good service that is the only thing that will take you there.
THISDAY • WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015 BUSINESSWORLD 33 INSURANCE Honeywell’s VOP Process Technology to Run Dangote Oil Refinery UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, has said that its process technology, catalysts and proprietary equipment will form the basis for the largest refinery in Africa, reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported fuels and petrochemicals. According to a release, Dangote Oil Refining Company selected UOP technology for a world-scale integrated refinery and petrochemical plant to be built in Lekki, near the capital of Lagos in southwestern Nigeria. Nigeria has the second-largest amount of proven oil reserves in Africa – an estimated 37.2 billion barrels, according to Oil & Gas Journal. However, Nigeria currently imports most of its refined product requirements due to lack of domestic refining capacity. “UOP has been designing state-of-the-art refineries and petrochemical plants for more than a century, so we are well-equipped to help Nigeria develop a massive new installation to meet its domestic needs,” said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of UOP’s Process, Technology and Equipment business. “This project will enable Dangote to improve Nigeria’s oil refining capabilities, reduce the country’s dependence on imports, and work to revive and transform the Nigerian economy.” The Dangote Group is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest in Africa. The company has a number of interests, including cement, real estate, oil, natural gas, telecommunications, fertilizer and steel. The Group focuses on local, value-added products and services that meet the needs of the African population. In addition to processing crude oil to produce highquality gasoline, diesel and jet fuel that meet Euro V specifications for reduced emissions, the new facility will produce world-scale quantities of polypropylene, a key petrochemical used in plastics and packaging. UOP technologies at this facility will include: The UOP Resid Fluid Catalytic Cracking process to produce transportation fuels from crude oil. It will also supply propylene, which will be used as a feedstock for polypropylene; the CCR Platforming process to produce high-octane gasoline blending components; the Unicracking process to produce diesel; the Penex process to produce high-octane gasoline and the crude distillation unit (CDU) design, which will be provided by UOP’s alliance partner, Process Consulting Services. In addition to technology licensing and design services, the UOP organisation is working with Dangote Oil Refining Company to provide catalysts, adsorbents and proprietary equipment for the project. Premium Pension Records N1.77 Billion Profit Ebere Nwoji Premium Pension Limited, one of the leading pension fund administrators in Nigeria, has announced a profit after tax of N1.77billion for the year ended December 31, 2014. This represents eight per cent increase from the previous year’s profit of N1.652 billion. Announcing this at the company’s 10th annual general meeting (AGM) held in Abuja, Chairman of the company, Aliyu Dikko said during the year under review, the turnover for the company grew from N4.226 billion to N5.252 billion representing a growth of 24.28 per cent. He said the company’s profit before tax grew from N2.351 billion to N2.609 billion, signifying a growth of 10.97 per cent , while profit after tax grew from N1.625 billion to N1.766 billion. He said the above impressive performance is a reflection of the various strategies the company had adopted and the commitment of the board, management and staff in ensuring that new businesses were won and existing customers well served through the delivery of superior customer service. He said despite the declining employment opportunities that had negatively impacted on the company’s business generation drives, Premium Pension Pension has expanded its horizon in terms of funds under management and number of Retirement Savings Accounts. “As at December,2014 the company has several Funds Under Management (FUM), namely; Active RSA fund, Retiree RSA fund, CBN active and CBN Retiree fund, NNPC 1 & 2 fund UBN fund, SEC fund and FBN fund. Other funds under our company’s management include Jigawa State fund, NDIC fund, Intercontinental fund, Lagos Chanel Mgt fund, Rivers State fund as well as Niger state Legacy fund.” He also said that the company had maintained robust relationship with existing institutional clients and is tirelessly working towards establishing new relationships. According to him, the assets and income for the company witnessed significant growth during the year despite stiff competition and macroeconomic instability. He disclosed that the number of RSAs registered by the company both in the public and private sector organisations increased from 613,449 contributors as at December, 2013 to 662,628 in 2014. According to the Premium Pension boss, out of the total RSAs, 514,446 were funded while 148,162 were still being persuaded for funding. He said the consolidated portfolio as at December 31, 2014 had a net asset value of N367.768 billion as against N323.427 billion that had been reported in December, 2013. “This has resulted in a growth of 13.69 per cent. The RSA (active) fund which as at December 31, 2013 had a net asset value of N219.288 billion closed the year 2014 with N268.198 billion signifying a growth of 22.30 per cent, “ he stated. Continuing on the performance of the company during the year under review, Dikko said.
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