By: ZAKA KHALIQ
At least 21 listed insurance companies have paid a total of N60 million penalties to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for late submission of their 2012 financial accounts, Daily Newswatch has discovered. As at yesterday, 26 insurance companies were listed on the exchange.
In the latest X-Compliant Report dated April 25, 2014 on the NSE website, these companies were said to have filed in their financial statements to the exchange after the regulatory due date, which warrants such fines.
Leading the pack is Universal Insurance Plc which had to cough out N4.2 million, while African Alliance Insurance Plc equally paid N4 million penalty, even as Guinea Insurance Plc paid N3.8 million fines.
The Exchange had to fine both Equity Assurance Plc and Niger Insurance Plc N3.2 million each while Great Nigerian Insurance Plc was equally fined N3.8 million.
Staco Insurance Plc paid N3.5 million alongside Lasaco Assurance Plc that paid N3.6 million monetary penalty to the exchange.
NEM Insurance Plc, on the other hand, got N3.5 million sanction, as Mutual Benefit Assurance Plc paid N3.4 million sanction. Prestige Assurance was made to pay N2.9 million, Law Union and Rock Insurance Plc paid N2.7 million fine, while Regency Alliance Insurance Plc got penalised for N2.5 million. Sovereign Trust Insurance(STI) Plc paid N2.4 million, Cornerstone Insurance Plc paid N2.8 million for the same offence, as Royal Exchange Plc got N2.6 million fine.
Moreover, Unity Kapital Insurance Plc coughed out N2.1 million as fine, Custodian & Allied Insurance Plc paid N2.2 million monetary sanction, even as AIICO Insurance Plc got sanctioned for N1.5 million. Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc had to pay N900, 000 as penalty, while Wapic Insurance Plc paid N700, 000 fines.
The entire insurance companies struggled last year, to submit their 2012 financial account in International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) format to the National Insurance Commission(NAICOM), being the first time the new accounting format was used.
Most operators are yet to have full understanding of the new accounting format and how it operates, thus, leading to delay in the submission and approval of their 2012 accounts.
NAICOM also penalised companies for late submission and before they could get approval to forward their accounts to NSE, the deadline given to them to do so had expired.
Daily Newswatch learnt that underwriters had to incur so much on payment of penalties to NSE, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and NAICOM, thus, negatively affecting the volume of their income, hence, crippled the capacity of most of them to declare dividend to their shareholders.
However, the tide seems to have shift for better this year, when compared to last year, as underwriting companies have started submitting 2013 accounts in the required format to NAICOM.
Unlike, last year, it seems things have changed for better and in a couple of weeks, experts expect more companies to submit their 2013 accounts to the commission, while the regulator is expected to have approved 95 per cent account of insurance firms before the end of July, this year.
As it is, 10 companies have so far submitted their accounts, while four accounts have been approved by NAICOM. While Mansard Assurance Plc has already done its AGM, the other two are expected to do theirs, any moment from now.
Source Daily Newswatch
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