Claims payment in the insurance market has improved across the two businesses, life and non-life reflecting the willing state of the underwriters to admit and pay claims as an obligation to deserving policyholders and, still focused on effective pricing and burgeoning capacity.
The claims component of the gross premium written up to Q4 2025 which penup at N2.3tr was N724.7bn, representing about 31.5% of the gross premiums written during the period. In 2024, the industry recorded a gross claims reported at N926.1bn representing 50.9% of increase compared to its prior position when it stood when it stood at N614bn
The National Insurance Commission ‘Bulletin of the Insurance Market Performance’ concluding the Q4 2025, stated that the performance “highlights a strong underwriting capacity within the market and reflects the effectiveness of insurers pricing strategies during the quarter.
It also reflects the way pricing strategies and capacity together disrupt the prior upward trajectory of claims paid. Though a dip was achieved in 2025, the high volume of paid claims reflect the unwavering obligation to pay by insurers.
“During the period, the life insurance section recorded a notable claims settlement ratio of 65.5% while the non-life segment achieved a settlement rate of 75.5% of total claims reported during the period under review,” the report stated.
Highlighting how the claims performance played out, the report said, “The ratio of net claims paid compared to gross claims reported during the period has demonstrated some strong performance across various business classes. In the non-life, statistics shows that motor insurance recorded an outstanding ratio of 88.5%, followed by miscellaneous at 83.1%, while general accident stood at 81.2%. Similarly, aviation, fire, marine and oil & gas insurance businesses also reported 80.5%, 75%, 68.1% and 61% respectively during the quarter.
“The improvements observed across portfolios especially in the oil & gas with respect to the claims paid ratio during the period highlights the significantly growing market confidence, capacity and claims settlement quality in spite of the existing low capital prevalent in the market,” the report cleared.
The stats for 2024 oil & gas claims the report cleared, were exceptionally significant increase, several times higher than its prior growth in 2023 owing to some major numbers pulled from the oil & gas and fire businesses reported during the year.
Expecting better underwriting experiences, NAICOM’ report emphasised that the ongoing recapitalisation would be the game changer for higher retention in the oil & gas portfolio. “Therefore, the ongoing recapitalisation exercise is expected to address even better the gap towards the realisation of the industry’s long-standing potentials of the desired market penetration and adequate de-risking of the Nigerian economy.”
