Guinea Insurance PLC held its 64th annual general meeting (AGM) recently in Lagos, with the board chairman, Mr. Ugochukwu Godson reaffirming the board and management commitment to strategically and effectively position the company as an investor delight with focus on shareholders financial wellbeing.
The chairman while presiding stated that the company was already on the comeback trail to profitability as funds had been injected to strengthen its financial base and increase its capacity for transacting large scale business deals.
Speaking on behalf of the shareholders, Boniface Okezie, Chairman of the Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, noted that timely payment of claims was key and was content the company acknowledged that. He commended deliberate and purposeful actions toward taking the company to glorious times but expressed concerns over the numerous mitigating factors impeding the projected upward mobility of the company to profitability.
The managing director, and chief executive officer, Ademola Abidogun, in his remark, assured shareholders of the upcoming changes. “With the injection of additional capital,” he asserted, “our company is now well positioned to attract and transact larger portions of new businesses.” Besides, he said the company has embraced the investment roadmap in technology and digital transformation to give customers the freedom to purchase reliable insurance products without any geographical restrictions. The company he said was responding to expectations by keeping management costs to a minimum, obtain regulatory approval for the underwriting of agricultural insurance, and reduced operating expenses.
While presenting the operating results for the year under review, the chairman cleared that despite many difficulties and operational challenges the company was able to weather the storm and continue on the path of growth. Gross premium written was N1.35bn, representing a 24.8% increase over the N1.08bn recorded in 2020; gross premium income rose from N1.05bn to N1.34bn representing a 27.4% increase. The net claims expenses in 2021 was N0.48bn which is a 69.1% improvement over the sum of N1.55bn recorded in 2020. This was due to efficient claims management. However, loss before tax of N60million was recorded. This is as against N225million recorded in year 2020 representing over 73.3% decrease. Loss after tax also stood at N23million, representing a significant drop of 89.9% decrease when compared with the sum of N228million recorded in 2020.
In conclusion, the company’s shareholders approved the re-election of the following directors: Godson Ugochukwu, Alhaji Hassan Dantata, and Simon Bolaji. In a similar spirit, the shareholders agreed to increase Guinea Insurance’s issued and allocated share capital to 7,942,800,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each, effective as of August 16, 2022.
