Universal Insurance records impressive growth performance in 2019
Frontline insurance company, Universal Insurance Plc, has disclosed it recorded impressive growth performance in its business operations across the country over the period spanning the year 2019.
The company’s performance record shows a significant growth of 120 percent increase as at the end of third quarter 2019 compared with its record performance for the year preceding, 2018.
The Managing Director/CEO of the company, Benedict Ujoatuonu who gave this performance analysis in an exclusive interview with MARKETING EDGE in Lagos, said the company posted remarkable profits judging from its end of third quarter results, adding that in terms of performance year, 2019 was far much better than 2018.
“If you check our records as at third quarter of the year which has been concluded and sent to the regulators, you would see that when you compare third quarter 2019 and third quarter 2018, there was a very big remarkable change. The gap was well over 120 percent in terms of performance. You could also see that in the third quarter 2019 we posted profits and we are expecting that by the end of the year it could get better.
“I can tell you as at third quarter 2019, we had done about what we did for the year 2018. So, that tells obviously that the year 2019 is better in terms of performance than 2018,” he said.
Ujoatuonu, who took a comprehensive assessment of business performances in Nigeria’s Insurance sector in the period of the outgoing year, noted that the industry fared significantly well, adding that the industry was bound to witness improved growth performance going forth in the New Year.
According to the company boss, the world economy was becoming largely digitalized, and to that extent, digital technology would play a key role for the expected growth to be realised especially in the post-recapitalisation era of Nigeria’s insurance industry.
While giving assurances that the company would cross the N10 billion recapitalisation huddle stipulated by the regulator, NAICOM, he added that the company would focus more on investing in areas of marketing and marketing communications with the aim to further enhance upon the profile and equity of the Universal Insurance brand.
“In the era of post-recapitalisation we are going to see a lot of capacity building in terms of professionalism, business retention, capital retention and re-writing high ticket risks and all the rest of them. So, a lot of good things are going to happen going forward in the industry.
“I see, in the nearest future, a lot of new things and new dimensions in insurance because the world is going digital and insurance is also following suit. Insuretech is also coming in to modify a whole lot of things that would happen in the insurance industry, especially this time that we are having recapitalisation in the insurance industry,” he noted.
He added that the insurance industry was contributing just a paltry 5 percent to the national GDP, a record that is far much less compared to records in similar African country.
He attributed the trend to several economic factors, adding that the industry alongside NAICOM was exploring various ways of deepening insurance penetration in the Nigerian economy.
“It is still quite very low; the industry itself is aware of it and we are looking at what can be done to ensure that this is improved upon to the extent of what happens in other climes. If you go to South Africa, East Africa, Kenya in particular, the insurance industry has a higher GDP contribution to the economy than it is the case here and that has to do with our attitude, culture and religion,” Ujoatuonu explained.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.