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Chuks Udo Okonta
The Board of AIICO Insurance Plc has declared a six kobo dividend per ordinary share of 50 kobo each, amounting to N415. 8 million to its shareholders, representing 20 per cent increase over what was declared in the previous year.
The Chairman of the Company, Bukola Oluwadiya, disclosed this to shareholders today at the firm’s 49th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos.
According to him, “Dear Shareholders, for the Financial year ended December 31, 2018, your Board is recommending for approval at this Annual General Meeting the payment of a total of N415,812,268.80 representing six kobo per ordinary share of fifty kobo each. This dividend will be payable net of withholding tax following your approval at this Annual General Meeting.”
He said in order to deliver superior returns to the company’s shareholders; the Board has decided to move to a progressive dividend policy.
Oluwadiya said going forward, the company plan is to maintain or grow the ordinary dividend per share over time depending on business performance, growth prospects and regulatory solvency requirements.
The Chairman who described 2018 as “another better year for our company” said the company’s meticulous execution of its transformation plans yielded expected result with year on year improvement in its performance.
During the period under review, Oluwadiya said the company’s Gross Premium grew by 17.4 per cent to N37.7 billion from N32.1 billion reported in 2017.
He said the growth was predominately driven by both the company’s life and non-life businesses.
The Board Chairman said the company’s deliberate approach to risk selection; superior technical underwriting capabilities and reinsurance arrangements led to over 180 per cent improvement in its underwriting profits from negative N4 billion in 2017 to over N3.2 billion in 2018.
The profit before tax, he said, stood at N3.4 billion, representing a 15 per cent growth over N3 billion recorded in the same period of 2017.
During the period under review, according to him, the company’s Net Asset Value (NAV) increased by 39.4 per cent from N10.9 billion in 2017 to N15.2 billion, which he said was driven by profit for 2018.
He said the company has continued to strengthen its insurance businesses through investment in actuarial capabilities by employing a Chief Actuary in the team which he said has significantly added value to the company’s business strategy and execution.
“During the year under review, we intensified efforts at re-modernization of our Agency workforce. We invested in best-in-class training and recruitment practices for our Agency platform to improve productivity,” he said.
On non-life, he said, “In Non-Life, we continuously seek to grow our retail offerings and continue to strengthen partner relationships. We made continuous improvement in underwriting ability and capacity to drive selected product ranges in our portfolio.”
He said the company has continued to deploy leading people practices to attract and retain talents, adding in that in 2018, “We commenced the implementation of our newly developed Career Management Framework – allowing our people to chart their path to self-development and advancement within the company.”
Mr. Oluwadiya said that one of the company’s priorities is to continue to build a pipeline of talents with adequate competencies to manage the affairs of the company.
According to him, in 2018, we ensured that some of our middle-senior management employers received training on key leadership development programmes at the prestigious Lagos Business School and Wharton Business School, United States of America (USA), while other category of employees also benefited from various training programmes as part of the company’s people-development initiatives.
