WAICA Re Expands Operations Across Africa

ThisDay

Managing Director of WAICA Re, Mr. Abiola Ekundayo

Ebere Nwoji

WAICA Reinsurance Corporation Plc (WAICA Re) said it has concluded plans to expand its operations across African continent, Asia and the Middle East .The corporation said the expansion is in line with its determination to stand as an international body.

Managing Director of WAICA Re, Mr. Abiola Ekundayo, who disclosed this during the company’s annual general meeting in Accra, Ghana recently, informed that plans are being concluded to establish a contact office in Kenya next year to cater for East Africa as well as set up offices in the other regions.

He said: "Our intention is to become fully international and move outside West Africa. Currently, our diaspora funds are growing faster than what we obtain from Nigeria and Ghana and other West African Countries."

“We are growing tremendously, and growing our capital base with investors coming not only from our member countries, but also from places such as East Africa. We are also expanding our presence in francophone African countries from the second quarter of this year”, he noted.

He emphasised that the quick turn-around time for processing businesses had earned the company an enviable credibility that had helped it to attract businesses beyond Africa, from the Middle East and a few from Asia.

Although the AGM to adopt the 2013 accounts and financial statement of the company was initially scheduled to take place last year, it was postponed due to the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, where WAICA Re is headquartered.

As the corporation’s articles of incorporation did not permit it to hold AGMs outside the jurisdiction of its host country, the clause was subsequently amended at an extraordinary general meeting, which now allows holding the AGM in other member countries.

While the company grew its total assets from $6.33 million in 2011 to $56.06 million in 2013, the figure is expected to have increased to $65.85 million by the end of this year.

Its gross premium also soared from $7.16 million in 2012 to $15.92 million in 2013, while profit before tax went up from $374,169 to $4.09 million during the same period under review .That is also projected to cross the $6 million mark by the close of this year.

Established by the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA), the company commenced operations with modest capital pooled from member companies and the public in July 2011. Its capital base was later raised to $25 million in December 2013.

Ekundayo stressed that the core values of the corporation, which included professionalism and speed, “are carrying us higher. We don't want to be ordinary or average, we want to do it as it should be professionally done.”