Bancassurance gains ground
...As Unity Bank buys Kapital Equity Insurance
Oladele Ayeleso, Lagos
There is no gainsaying that the insurance industry in Nigeria , apart from the fact that it has become the strongest insurance sector in Africa in terms of capital base, has walked away from its perceived ugly past, thanks to the recently concluded recapitalisation and consolidation exercises which were moderated by the Federal Government.
It comes as a thing of joy to notice the high level attention which insurance companies now enjoy, evidently shown by the acceptance of insurance stocks and the growth it experienced on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange. There were days when such high level visibility and patronage were the exclusive preserve of the banks.
It is, however, left to be argued that the current mass appeal posture which insurance companies have come to enjoy has nothing to do with the insurance industry’s new romance with the banks.
One can no longer count on finger tips the number of insurance companies in the country which have found the favour of enjoying common ownership with some banks, turning the major financial service sector of the nation into one. The truth of the matter is that such insurance firms have come to benchmark their products, services and human resource as well as capital out lay with those of the banks to the extent that they have suddenly discovered that they were never at any time disadvantaged.
Professor Joe Irukwu, an insurance icon in Africa, once said, “the increasing involvement of the banks in the insurance business and the movement towards the harmonisation of the concept of a united, strong and viable financial services industry, should be constructively exploited for the collective and mutual benefit of the insurance sector, the banking industry and all other sectors of the financial services industry”.
One of the insurance companies which seem to have hastened up its self rediscovery programme is, perhaps Kapital Insurance Limited. The first year post-consolidation trading results of Kapital Insurance points to the fact that the company was not far away from realising its full potentials. It is evident that Kapital Insurance has developed the penchant for doing things different.
Added to this is the resolve not to lose sight of the enormous advantages which its relationship with Unity Bank Plc confers on it. For those who care to know, Unity bank is standing out today as the highest single majority shareholder in Kapital Insurance.
It, therefore, follows that Kapital Insurance is on the category of such other insurance institutions like Oceanic Insurance group, Zenith General Insurance, Guaranty Trust Assurance, Intercontinental Wapic Insurance Plc and Union Assurance which have combined the advantage of big share capital with that of interface with a banking conglomerate to deepen their operations. The bottom line is that there is a far more latitude in achieving customer satisfaction.
Those who have had the fortune of doing business with the new Kapital Insurance have confessed to its resilience. There appears to be no more impossibility. Kapital Insurance says that it sees only possibilities, a culture which it confessed trickled down from Unity Bank’s culture of wanting to do most things right.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kapital Insurance Plc, Alhaji Mohammed Kari had explained the efforts of the company to maintain top level customer care culture when he disclosed that Kapital Insurance now operated from all the branch offices of Unity Bank throughout the country.
“Kapital Insurance has a good capital base. We have even opened discussions on the best possible ways to raise the capital because we feel that we need to make the difference in the market. Kapital Insurance does not intend to be everything to everybody, we do not insist on doing all and every business but we have passion for service excellence. The good thing now is that we are within reach, courtesy of the multiple branch network of Unity Bank.
Now, Kapital Insurance Company Limited has declared its intention to enter into a new phase of its growth structure as it concludes a restructuring and re-branding strategies. This, the company said would culminate in its unveiling of a new identity. Nigerian Tribune reliably gathered that the re-branding of Kapital Insurance comes as a prelude to its adoption of a new trade name and the eventual listing of the company’s shares for trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
It will be recalled that Kapital Insurance, early this year, conducted share capital increase, an exercise which was prosecuted through private placement. Kapital Insurance which has Alhaji Mohammed Kari, a former Managing Director of both NICON and Nigerian Reinsurance Corporation is no doubt on the upward beat. Already, managers of the company are optimistic that the proposed re-branding would give the company the much needed edge over its competitors. Apart from the change of logo and brand name, the organization has packaged a wide range of new products to be unfolded to prospective insurers later this month.
Although the new logo and brand name have not been disclosed, sources however said it was adopted by the company’s management as a widely acceptable one after series of modifications and it is hoped that it will have mass appeal. The understanding of the planned name change is to bring the company closer to its holding company, Unity Bank Plc.
The company’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Alfred Mbonu who comfirmed the scheduled rebranding said that the climax of the re-branding would be the listing of its shares at the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, thereby making the company a public liability organisation.
