Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc has recorded a 65.58 per cent growth in net earnings during the year ended December 31, 2010.
According to reports from the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the year end audited results of the company showed a profit after tax of N804.98 million compared to N277.02 million recorded in 2009, representing an increase of 65.58 per cent .
The company’s gross premium stood at N3,367.83 million as against N2,655.11 million in the comparable period of 2009 while the net asset value stood at N5,315.18 million compared to N4,511.56 million in December 2009.
The insurance outfit had recently graduated risk advisors in an effort to aid in consolidating the enforcement of compulsory insurance.
The manpower is to help sensitise the insuring public, educate and enlighten them on the legal implications and benefits of compulsory insurance and also to help achieve the objective of Retail Insurance for Growth and Development (RIGADS) in Mutual Benefits
The Group Managing Director, Mutual Benefits Assurance, Mr. Akin Ogunbiyi, speaking to journalists at a graduation ceremony in Lagos said retail insurance wouldn’t have come at a better time than when NAICOM launched the compulsory insurance.
“We keep saying that insurance penetration is so low in Nigeria. Insurance gap according to statistics is about 94 per cent. Now that the insurance industry has risen up from the challenges by coming up with products and services that will service the masses in terms of meeting their needs and NAICOM has come up with the initiative of the compulsory insurances which are embedded in the law. In the last two years, we have been working very hard, creating awareness, enlightening and educating the people to ensure that when it comes into effect, they will be able to buy it,” he said.
Ogunbiyi noted that Mutual Benefits was positioned to make sure that it took maximum mileage through the compulsory insurances that came into effect from March 1, 2011.
He added that to leverage on the opportunities offered by the compulsory insurance, the company came up with the initiative of training senior risk advisors, hence the first phase graduation of about 70 advisors with extensive working experience, highly educated, well enlightened from both the financial institution and public sectors.
“We are dealing with experienced people who will be able to immediately impact in the marketing of the compulsory insurances. The three- week courses actually dwelled extensively on the essence of the compulsory, scope of coverage, the benefit derivable, even though it is compulsory. We give them the skill to marketing the products so that people will be able to buy,” Ogunbiyi said.
He disclosed that Mutual Benefit was targeting to sell minimum of one million policies by 2012.
“If you look at insurance penetration in the country, out of about 150 million Nigerians as population, the units sold by all the insurance industry altogether is about 750,000. So, with the compulsory insurances, we are saying that by 2012, we want to be able to sell about one million policies which is our global target. It falls within the global objective of the new global target of Mutual Benefit that we want to be clearly the number one in the industry by 2015 in terms of all parameter,” the GMD said.
While commending the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) for its efforts at growing the insurance industry, he said that the company’s team of highly trained risk advisors were available in every geographical zone in Nigeria to guide employers, institutions and individuals on how to arrange their insurance protection so as not to break the law.
Ogunbiyi noted that Mutual Benefits Assurance has also “set up an in-house initiative to promote the retail insurance channel in Nigeria under which it is empowering graduates and people displaced in the financial and public sector reforms by creating 20,000 jobs between 2011 and 2015.
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