Chuks Udo Okonta
Aligning the financial accounts of
insurance companies with International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) has
become a herculean nut for the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to crack,
as only one firm got approval between Monday, September 30 and yesterday Monday,
October 7.
According
to a release on NAICOM’s website, only Custodian & Allied Insurance Plc
account was approved, thereby making the numbers of approved firms 17, while 39
accounts have been submitted so far.
Firms already
approved include: Mansard Insurance plc; ADIC Insurance Limited; WAPIC
Insurance Plc; Consolidated Hallmark Insurance; Oasis Insurance Plc; FBN Life
Assurance Limited; Continental Reinsurance Company Plc; AIICO Insurance Plc and
Leadway Assurance Company Limited.
Others
are; Crusader General Insurance Limited; Crusader Life Insurance Limited; UBA
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; Zenith Insurance Company Limited; Unitrust
Insurance Company Limited; Unity Kapital Assurance Plc and Standard Allied Life
Assurance.
While
those of Regency Alliance Company; Sterling Assurance Nigeria Limited; Law
Union & Rock Insurance Company Plc; Wapic Life Assurance Limited; Nem
Insurance Plc; Crystal Life Insurance; Oceanic (old Mutual); PHB Insurance Plc;
Lasaco Assuarnce Plc and Royal Prudential Life Assurance Plc; Cornerstone
Insurance Plc; Great Nigeria Insurance were queried and their responses are
being awaited.
The
accounts submitted by Niger Insurance Plc; Lasaco Life Assurance; Nigeria
Reinsurance Corporation and Linkage Assurance Plc are being reviewed.
The Commissioner for Insurance Fola Daniel, said transition to IFRS
is not an option, but an imperative, and so, there is no two ways about it. He
maintained that the commission places great priority on ensuring that
operator’s financials beginning from 2012 accounts are credible.
He said the commission had
made frantic effort to ensure that operators have seamless transmission to
IFRS, adding that the delay presently observed in the approval of some
operator’s accounts is because the results do not meet the desired standard.
He said: “As early as
January 2011, we called on Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of all insurance
companies, their external auditors to a workshop, and we had two more workshops
as a follow-up in the same year and did same last year. And that was why within
the financial regulators, NAICOM was given the chairmanship, because we were
leading even the bankers in IFRS conversion.
“Unfortunately, we do not
regulate the external auditors, all we can do, is to get them understand what
IFRS is all about, but they slack. The problem is that many of these accounts
were done in a way that is not IFRS compliant. IFRS transition is not an
option, but an imperative. So, there is
no two ways about it. I think what is key, to us in NAICOM is that our
financials beginning from 2012 accounts, must be credible.
“I do not feel good as
Commissioner for Insurance, when a would-be investor from South Africa, looks
at our financials, he says it is a joke and throws it away, because it does not
have credibility. That is not good for us as an industry. Our industry operates
under the principle of utmost good faith, so every paper we wave must be
credible.
“What we are trying to do is
to ensure that there is 360 degree credibility and that is what we would have.
A few of the companies have been approved so far. “
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