Niger Insurance to increase branch network...Enters into alliance with Afribank

By Ayeleso Oladele, Lagos - Updated: Tuesday 25-03-2009

Founder, Little Saints Orphanage, Reverend
(Mrs.) Dele George, flanked from left by
Miss Ifeoma Judo, Mr. Segun Bankole,
Mr. Taiwo Kuyoro and Miss Jumoke Kehinde,
all of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc when
the company donated gifts to the orphanage
in Lagos recently. The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Niger Insurance Plc, Mr. Justus Clinton Uranta, has disclosed that the company, as part of its growth strategies, has started operation in its newly opened two regional offices to boost its financial, technological and human capacities to match the growing insurance needs of Nigerians.

According to him, this had prompted the company to open two additional regional offices and 11 branch offices within the country which was as the result of its desire to provide unequalled service delivery to its clients.

Mr. Uranta, who disclosed this in the company’s head office in Lagos, said that with the newly opened branch network and regional offices, it had brought the total number of the company’s regional offices to six and branch network to forty.

This, according to him, would match the growing insurance needs of Nigerians with solutions that preserve and grow the wealth of its clients.

He further disclosed that the company, in order to properly position itself for the challenges ahead, had entered into strategic alliance with Afribank of Nigeria Plc for the purpose of creating the biggest financial supermarket.

Mr. Uranta said that the company intended to create quality products for its clients while also using its combined branch networks for service delivery.

While fielding questions from insurance correspondents, Mr. Uranta said that the arrangement between his company and Afribank of Nigeria was such that would enable Niger Insurance brand its desk in the banking hall of most of the Afribank branches across the country, most especially in places where Niger Insurance was not having a branch before then.

According to him, in spite of the harsh economic environment, the company’s premium income had grown from N2.3 billion in 2005 to about N5 billion in 2008 which represented an increase of 130 per cent within the year under consideration.

As part of the efforts towards actualising its set objectives and goal, most especially in the changing business environment, Mr. Uranta disclosed that the company was undergoing a restructuring that was meant to assist in meeting and surpassing the customers’ expectation.

He said “the exercise was meant to lead to manpower realignment for greater utilisation.”

The company, as part of the great feat attained, had been rated A+ by Global Credit Rating, which, according to the company’s managing director, had been rated A+ for the past three years.