Anchor Insurance Company Limited, has grossed a premium of N5.1bn from 2020 to date, just as it achieved N4.2bn premium income as at the end of 2019.
Speaking with the media in Lagos on Thursday (August 13 2020), the Managing Director, Mr Augustine Ebose, disclosed that despite the effect of Covid-19 pandemic on business operations, the firm was able to achieve the present result, noting that the performance would have passed N7bn projection if the pandemic had not set in.
Reflecting, he said, “we started the year well and from all our efforts and aggressive marketing, it was clear we were going to hit at least N7bn by mid-year 2020, but for the pandemic since March has made the insuring public to review their insurance budgets downwards.”
However, he said that “despite the Covid-19 challenges, we have surpassed the N4.2bn premium income we wrote in 2019 as I can confidently tell you that as at second week of this month of August, our performance stood at N5.1bn.”
Asked how the company has been marketing since the advent of Covid-19, Mr. Ebose responded: “It was like we at Anchor Insurance foresaw this pandemic period when we invested in most modern information technology to drive our business.
“It was not difficult for us to continue to navigate the insurance market using what we had already put in place and it has really helped in ensuring we never suffered any panic in this era of doing business differently.”
He said, “this manifest new approach to doing insurance business even before the advent of Covid-19 alongside other giant strides made by the company earned us an award as the ‘Insurance Company of the Year 2019’ in February this year by Daily Independent newspaper.
Mr. Ebose commented on the 2019 accounts approved by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) fixed for September 4th.
He also said that the company was upbeat with recapitalization in line with the order of the National Insurance Commission, pointing out that Anchor Insurance was recapitalizing without any merger option. “It is, therefore, our resolve to recapitalize alone as Anchor Insurance Company Limited. … but we can buy over their policy portfolios (of those who could not scale the exercise) where the need arises.”
Unveiling the company’s performances in 2019, he said that it recorded N4.2bn premium income as against N3.4bn in 2018, achieved a profit after tax of N220.2m from its 2018 N163.8m position and paid claims totalling N929.6m compared to N816.9m paid in the corresponding period of 2018.
He noted that “the selling points of the company are its stability and deliberate policy of responding to genuine claims speedily and, continually meeting global best practices, religiously adopting good corporate governance in all its dealings and ensuring adequate return on investments to shareholders.”
