FinInsurance rebrands for excellent performance….records N1.2 billion income

By Dele Ayelesa, Lagos - Updated: Tuesday 19-05-2009

Managing Director, Unilever Nigeria Plc,
Thomas Boedinger, and Chairman, Apostle
Hayfre Alile, at the Unilever Nigeria Plc
pre-AGM cocktail held at the Golden Gate
Restaurant in Lagos, recently. Photo;
Taiwo Balogun ALL indications point to the fact that Fin Insurance Company Limited, a subsidiary of Finland Bank Plc, is striving to take a leading position among the Nigerian insurance companies through its innovative products and repositioning strategies.

Formerly known as Yankari Insurance Company Limited, a company which was owned by the old Bauchi State government, it started operations in 1981 as a full-fledge composite insurance company and relocated its head office from Bauchi to Abuja to reflect its repositioning and vision.

Mr. Auwalu Muktari, the Managing Director of the company, in a chat, stated that the company, apart from the relocation of its head office to Abuja, had turned its Victoria Island office into a control office with full authority in handling underwriting and claims.

According to him, the company recorded a premium income of N1.2 billion in 2008 from the N513 million recorded in 2007. Regarding its claim settlement culture, Mr. Muktari stated that the company had never defaulted in claim settlement, adding “we are committed to promoting this legacy.”

In his response to the agitation of insurance brokers over the activities of some of the banks that own insurance companies who mandated their customers to insure their liabilities with their insurance subsidiaries and make it a prerequisite to business transactions, he emphatically stated that the company runs its activities independent of the bank, saying that he had a target.

Following the pattern of the banking industry, insurance companies, according to him, are to provide the required risk cover in support of bold economic initiatives of the Federal Government, in which, he said, Finsurance was poised to play a leading role.

He further disclosed that the company was already exploring the opportunities that the recapitalisation opened up in the area of oil and gas local content policy, maritime cabotage laws, customs and excise importation cover law and public private partnership initiative and infrastructure development to grow and become dominant in the coming years.

As the result of the last recapitalisation exercise in insurance industry which has definitely raised the bar of competition, considering competencies and capabilities of other insurance companies that met the approved minimum capital requirement, the company according to Muktari, was focusing on marketing and value creation.

“Our board and management are very much aware of this, therefore we are geared towards producing profitable returns by identifying new business opportunities in general insurance segment.

“Besides, we are determined to go into life insurance by injecting additional fund to start operations as a composite company before the end of third quarter,” he said.