Sovereign Trust Insurance gets new manager

 

Chuks Udo Okonta

Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc said it has engaged the services of Mrs. Ivie Ogbemudia to strengthen its human resource capacity.

The company in a statement said the engagement is in line with its adoption of new business model poised at repositioning for years ahead.
It said Ogbemudia, would work as Manager/Head, Human Resources Department under the Finance & Administration Division.
It noted that Ogbemudia holds an M.Sc in Human Resource Management from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, adding that she graduated with a Second Class upper degree from the Law Faculty, University of Benin, having capped it all with an outstanding performance at the Nigerian Law School.
The company said Ogbemudia is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, (ICSA) and also a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, (CIPD).
Until her recent appointment, she was a Human Resource Associate at Evaluation and Staffing Africa (ES-Africa). She was at one time, a Human Resource Officer at Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeen, UK. She also worked as a Human Resource Advisor at Thistle Hotels, Scotland. She has over six years experience in Human Resource Management and Development. She will be bringing her wealth of experience and expertise to bear in the underwriting firm.
Ogbemudia is to oversee the affairs of the Human Resources Department with responsibility for learning and development, talent management and performance management respectively. She is expected to chart a new course for the human resource development and capacity building for staff in the firm.
STI's Divisional Head and General Manager, Finance & Administration, Kayode Adigun enjoined the new entrant to judiciously contribute her own quota to the advancement of the company's brand just like other non-insurance professionals in the organisation have been doing since they joined the company.
"We are pleased to have you join the Sovereign Trust Family and we hope that you will passionately and objectively advance the course of our organisation amongst the comity of underwriting firms in the country," he said.
He noted that the underwriting firm will continue to strive to remain a major pacesetter in the insurance industry by consistently enhancing the quality of its workforce from time-to –time.
"We have a vibrant and well motivated workforce" he concluded.
Ogbemudia expressed her appreciation for being found worthy by the Management as a valuable addition to its burgeoning team. She pledged her total dedication to duty and commitment to the actualisation of the organisational set goals and objectives. She also expressed her determination to harness the company’s human capital resources optimally.

　

　

　

Old Mutual to buy Oceanic General Insurance

Chuks Udo Okonta and Agency report

Old Mutual Plc, South Africa-based Insurance firm, hopes to bed down the purchase of Oceanic’s general insurance business by the end of the first half of this year, Inspen has learnt.

According to a foreign media, the underwritinf firm has upped its commitment to the rest of Africa by deploying R5bn for expansion over the next three to five years. The Johannesburg-and London-listed insurer is on the verge of acquiring a short-term insurance business in Nigeria.

"It hopes to bed down the purchase of Oceanic’s general insurance business by the end of the first half of this year, a deal that will put the group in a position to offer life and non-life solutions in a country that is underinsured." it was learnt.

Competition among South African financial services companies in West Africa is expected to intensify. Liberty wants to bed down an acquisition in Ghana and Nigeria by the end of the year.

The short-term insurance business that Old Mutual is looking to acquire in Nigeria is a sister company of Oceanic Life, which it recently acquired from Ecobank.

Old Mutual South Africa and Emerging Markets CEO Ralph Mupita said there were great opportunities for short-term insurance in Nigeria as non-life gross written premiums exceeded those of life.

In Ghana, the company was considering options, but nothing was on the radar yet, he said.

Old Mutual has life and asset management businesses in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Malawi. It also has a life business in Swaziland.

Mupita said his division would consider value-accretive opportunities in Southern Africa, especially in countries where Old Mutual did not have a presence. In South Africa, the plan is to drive efficiencies in the existing businesses.

The insurer is expecting iWyze, the short-term insurance business of its subsidiary, Mutual and Federal, to break even by 2015.

How to esteem insurance rates - experts

Chuks Udo Okonta

Experts have identified reduction of the size of companies, evolution of specialised products, collaboration among stakeholders, embrace of retail market and more as panacea to the perpetual fall of insurance rates.

The Managing Director Royal Exchange General Insurance Company, Olutayo Borokini, told Inspen that the issue of falling rates, can only be addressed through proper diagnosis of the industry, adding that presently, there are

too many players for the businesses that are available. He noted that South Africa, as big as it is, in terms of insurance penetration, has about 15 insurance companies.

He wondered how possible it is, to effectively control 60 insurance firms in Nigeria, stressing that in most cases there are about five underwriters on a particular business, and if the five reject a risk, a brokers who has the business still has an opportunity to take other five in the market and can continue until he exhausts all available underwriters in the industry.

He said: "The bane of the industry is rate cutting. Because of the number of players in the market and with few businesses available, coupled with the weak economy, we have more demand than supply. And there are no new businesses, so there are intense competitions. "With the competition, some operators have to lower the price in most cases. There are supposed to be industry standard, but it is not adhered to. Competition has forced down the prices of insurance products.

"The issue is also complicated by multi-nationals. Because most manufacturing firms owned by multi-nationals have to contend with the cost of doing business in Nigeria, which is very high, they try to manage their cost and one of the areas of doing so is insurance. For an example, the management of a company would tell their broker, we are not ready to spend more that N100 million on insurance for a year, how you are to structure the programme is up to you.

"Then the broker would go around shopping, trying to beat down rate through reduction in prices. That would force the price down. That is the trend we are having now. Most of the industrial risk businesses are not well priced. In some cases the re-insurers have to intervene by rejecting the risks."

He said the future of the insurance companies lies in retail, adding that the growth of the industry in past years has been skilled towards wholesales which has narrowed the distributive channels of operators

Echoing him, Managing Director Riskguard-Africa Nigeria Limited Yemi Soladoye, said the industry is made up of too many cuttage companies. He said what the industry writes as annual premium income, is not up to a premium that a branch or agency of a company writes in a normal insurance setting, adding that the industry does not need many small firms to thrive.

"We do not have what I would call real insurance company in Nigeria. What we have is what I can call cuttage companies. What the industry writes as annual premium income, is not up to a premium that a branch or agency of a company writes in a normal insurance setting.

"For example, look out the results of Fortune 500, American Insurance Group (AIG) and more. These are companies that are generating about $250 billion premium each year. Covert that to naira, it is about N4 trillion. Last year, analysis was done of the 500 biggest companies in Africa, looking at the insurance companies on the report, there were 20, none is from Nigeria.

"So, we are not there. A small country like Mauritius, with a population of 1.2 million people, is generating 60 per cent of the premium income of Nigeria. This is because retail insurance has taken cetre place there.

"The number of insurance companies has not really impact the market. China, has a population of about 1.3 billion people, I am not sure the number of insurance firms there are up to ours. India has a population of 1.1 billion people the number of insurance firms is not up to 40.

"When the right thing is done, when operators have the vision to create a big visionary customers service oriented company, people will see the need to merge. People will see the need to create big companies."

He said the embrace of retail marketing will end the price war in the industry.

'Nigerians ll soon embrace life insurance like telecommunications'

Chuks Udo Okonta

With the efforts being put in place by underwriters, the public will soon embrace life insurance products like the telecommunications which was years back patronised by few Nigerians, Inspen can reveal.

Managing Director Crystalife Assurance Plc, Mrs Seyi Ifaturoti, who confirmed this said: "It is my belief that life insurance would be appreciated just as the telecommunications, which many people in the past did not believe would be embraced by the number we have today."

She noted that the company now has a basket of products ranging from education, health, pilgrimage policy, mortgage policies, credit life and more. All designed to improve lives.

"We believe that addressing the needs of people would enable us to draw them to embrace our business. We have been trying to talk to people, engage in pool marketing which we believe that sooner than later, we should be able to attain the desired level of penetration. It is our key objective to deepen the penetration of individual life business. We have given ourselves targets on how to achieve our set objectives."

She said the operators would continue to educate the public on the need for insurance, for as soon as people begin to embrace it, it would have multiplying effects.

Ifaturoti said the market opportunity for insurance in Nigeria has grown rapidly, requiring businesses to rethink product design, pricing, and distribution strategies to effectively reach the increasing pool of potential customers.

On the the recent investment into the company by LeapFrog, a leading emerging markets fund investor, she said, the firm's extensive experience in building insurers in emerging markets will help CrystaLife seize the moment and stimulates significant growth in both value and reach.

Sovereign Trust Insurance to host golf tournament

 

 

Chuks Udo Okonta

Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc has said it is set to host the first edition of its eponymous Open Golf Competition in conjunction with Ibadan Golf Club, in Ibadan, Oyo State, from March 8-10, 2013.

Its spokesperson Segun Bankole, in a statement said the company's brand has "very uncommon and dynamic qualities that it intends to showcase to the golfing community and golfers alike during the 3-day event and beyond, hence the sponsorship of the tournament."

He noted that the brand has evolved over time, having being established 18 years ago and today, "there is the emergence of a very youthful, eclectic and professional underwriting firm with pacesetting-initiatives that will shape the practice of insurance in the country in the years ahead". He concluded that the company has set in motion necessary machinery that will ensure that every participant will have an unforgettable experience at the end of the competition.

The Captain of Ibadan Golf Club and the Managing Director of one of the leading Broking firms in the country, Boff Insurance Brokers, Chief Babajide Olatunde-Agbeja expressed profound gratitude to the underwriting firm for staying true and showing commitment to its promise of sponsoring the tournament as pronounced by the Managing Director/CEO, Wale Onaolapo at the closing ceremony of the last Open Insurance Golf Competition. In his words, "the least that any corporate organization can do is to be socially responsible by contributing the little that they can to the development of their immediate community and the nation at large".

According to him, "Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc has consistently shown unwavering commitment to the promotion of sporting activities and the development of young talents in different areas of human endeavour in the country over a period of time now". He appealed to the Management of the company not to relent in its effort at ensuring that the country’s Human Capacity is developed to the fullest through the various CSR platforms they have identified and keep supporting year-in-year-out.

Onaolapo said the organisation will continue in its stride to stay true to all its aspirations especially in the area of ensuring that Nigerians embrace insurance without any form of compulsion or coercion rather accepts it as an inevitable service in sustaining wealth creation.

He further stated that the company has identified Sports as a formidable platform to preach such gospel which explains why the company has remained at the vanguard of promoting that initiative.

"Giving back to the society in whatever measure is an indication of true appreciation of what customers, business stakeholders and the general public mean to any organization; an indication that the brand is alive and responsive to its operating environment," he said.

Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, over the years has continued to sponsor numerous sporting, business and social events in the country and beyond.

It will be recalled that the company last year, in collaboration with other insurance and broking firms in the country co-sponsored the Open Insurance Golf tournament at the same Golf Club. This time around, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc is solely providing total support for the hosting of the competition.

　

　

　

Oyo State enlists support for brokers

Chuks Udo Okonta

Oyo State government has enlisted the support of insurance brokers in its transformative vision and rendering efficient services to the people.

The State’s Commissioner for Finance, Honourable Adedeji Adelabu made the call during a courtesy visit on him in Ibadan by the management of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), led by its President, Mrs ‘Laide Osijo.

Adelabu noted that there was no better time to seek the collaboration of professionals and their bodies than now when the state government is embarking on massive infrastructural turn-around of the state for the long term benefits of the people.

He specifically noted that the state government had realized the place of risk mitigation and management of its numerous human and material assets and was ready to engage the services of qualified insurance professionals whom he conceded had the prerequisite skill to assist the government achieve its goals.

Adelabu said: "The notion of self insurance which governments, including that of Oyo State always felt they could undertake on their own had failed severally, necessitating the need to cede such technical areas to the professionals".

He disclosed that the state government, in conformity with the Pensions Act 2004 had put in the pipeline group life policies for its civil service and mandated the clients of the government, especially those in the construction industry to ensure they insure their workers.

Earlier, the President of the Council, Barrister Laide Osijo commended the state government for the structural development of the state and noted that insurance was a complementary service to the government’s developmental efforts.

She noted that the patronage of insurance brokers would give clients the advantages of getting the best competitive rates from underwriters and give them the benefit of well tailor professional insurance advice on a regular basis.

Specialized insurance products to hit market soon

Chuks Udo Okonta

The era of tranditional insurance products would soon give way for specialized policies that are being nurtured by underwriters to meet the needs of the insuring public, Inspen can reveal.

The Managing Director Riskguard-Africa Nigeria Limited Yemi Soladoye, in an interview, said some companies have embraced the need to deepen the industry through provision of special needs products tailored towards retail market.

He noted that one underwriting firm is developing 44 specialized products to carter for different classes of people, adding that products which are micro-insurance base, would create jobs for over 22,000 workers.

Soladoye noted that products would ca
pture business opportunities within professional groups, households associations and more.

He said: "I know two operators that are determined to embrace retail insurance in the next three years. A particular company is ready to establish 200 offices between now and 2015. It is ready to generate 22,000 employments in the retail market. The company has asked me to develop 44 products for them for the retail market. The products development will be completed by the end of this month."

He said there are enormous untapped business opportunities within professional and cultural groups which can boost the profitability of operators.

He noted that the business culture of operators has stemmed the growth of the industry, adding that the operators are comfortable with going to brokers to collect cheques.

"The business culture of operators has not helped the situation. The operators like going to a broker to collect cheques, forgeting the fact that under the Market Developement and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) there is focus on groups and alliances. Take for an example, a group like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), I am sure it has about 20,000 members, if an insurance company designs a product for all members of NBA, and each of them pays N10,000 in a year, that would amounts to N200 million.

"The cost on this type of business is always low. This and many other types of business initiatives are what the MDRI focuses, which the underwriters are slow and failed to adopt," he said.

He noted that for the industry to thrive, the operators must embrace new trends and strengthen their retail marketing strategy.