NAICOM shifts account submission deadline for insurance firms to April

News watch Times

By ZAKA KHALIQ

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has shifted the account submission deadline for insurance companies from June 31^st to 30^th April, Newswatch Times learnt over the weekend.

This move, investigation shows, was to harmonise the submission deadline of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and NAICOM, while limiting the level of monetary fines being paid by underwriters to regulators on infractions.

In the last two years, insurance firms across the country have paid monetary fines running into N160 million to NSE, SEC and NAICOM as sanctions for their failure to submit accounts on or before the deadline given to them.

Speaking exclusively to Newswatch Times at the weekend, the Managing Director, Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, Lady Isioma Chukwuma, said the different deadlines for submission required by NSE, SEC and NAICOM could partly be said to be responsible for such huge monetary sanctions.

Whilst NSE requires that accounts must be submitted on or before 31^st March of every year, she said NAICOM’s deadline used to be on or before 30^th June but has now changed to on or before 30^thApril.  

This, according to her, should have been the other way round so that companies should have their accounts approved first by NAICOM before submission to NSE and SEC.

“What can I suggest to avoid delays in approval and resultant payment of penalties is that companies should commence the audit of their accounts early enough.  It also helps if interim audits are carried out as they facilitate the audit of the Year End Account,” she advised.

Contrary to insinuation hold by some that the regulator is unnecessarily sanctioning underwriting firms, Chukwuma stressed that “sanctions are only applied by NAICOM to companies that fail to meet required deadlines or are guilty of other infractions.  My advice is that Compliance Officers and NAICOM Relations Officers should ensure that NAICOM’s timelines for all requirements are strictly adhered to.”

NSE has 31^st March as the deadline for listed entities to submit their financial accounts of the previous year, while NAICOM mandates insurance companies to submit their accounts to it for approval on or before 30^th June, an arrangement most operators, are unhappy with.

Some of them who spoke to Newswatch Times had preferred that the submission deadline for NAICOM should have come earlier before that of NSE.