By Ebere Nwoji
About 50, out of the existing 58 insurance and reinsurance firms are yet to submit their 2015 third quarter Annual Accounts and Returns to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).
Also, six of the above existing firms are yet to submit their first, second and third quarter 2015 returns to the commission.
NAICOM in a statement titled ‘2015 quarterly returns submission status of insurance companies’ displayed on its website, listed the 50 insurance and reinsurance firms as Adic (NSIA) ltd, African Alliance Insurance, Aiico Insurance, Alliance & General Insurance, Alliance & General Life Assurance , Anchor Insurance, Capital Express Assurance ltd and Consolidated Hallmark Insurance.
Others are: Custodian & Allied Insurance, Custodian Life Assurance ltd, Equity Assurance Plc, Goldlink Insurance Plc, Great Nigeria Insurance, Guinea Insurance Plc, Industrial and General Insurance Plc, International Energy iInsurance and Law Union and Rock Company ltd.
Also, Leadway Assurance, Linkage Assurance, AXAmansard Insurance Plc, Mutual Benefit Assurance Plc, NEM Insurance Plc, Nicon Insurance Ltd ,Niger Insurance Plc, Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation , Old Mutual Insurance General Ltd, Old Mutual (Oceanic Life)Nigeria Life Assurance Ltd, Prestige Assurance Ltd and Royal Exchange Insurance Company Ltd.
Others are Royal Prudental Life Assurance Plc, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Staco Insurance, Standard Alliance Insurance Plc , Standard Alliance Life Assurance Co Ltd ,Sterling Assurance Ltd, Universal Insurance company Ltd, UBA Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Ltd, Unic Insurance Plc, Union Assurance Company Ltd, Unitrust Insurance Company Ltd, Unitykapital Assurance Plc, Wapic Life Assurance Ltd.
Also Zenith Life Insurance Co Ltd, Zenith Insurance company Ltd, Continental Reinsurance Company Plc, Nigerian Reinsurance Corporation, Investment &Allied Insurance Plc and Spring Life Assurance are yet to submit.
According to the NAICOM’s statement, the following companies have not submitted their first and second quarter returns: Alliance &General Insurance, Alliance & General Life Assurance, Goldlink Insurance Plc, Nicon Insurance Ltd, Investment and Allied Insurance Plc and Spring Life Insurance Plc.
Barely two months to the end of the current business year, these companies have failed to submit their returns whereas section 1.0, sub section 1.1 of insurance act 2003 states that all insurance and re-insurance companies shall submit to the Commission three copies each of duly audited financial statements and annual returns in prescribed forms .
Although the companies by the stipulations of the act have six months of grace into the next business year to submit their returns, NAICOM expects that having expended its resources and time to educate the firms on International Finance Reporting Standard model of account reporting, no company should wait for the expiration of the grace period before submitting its returns.
Apparently, from this large number that are yet to submit their last quarter returns, there are fears that the commission may have more defaulters in terms of submission of returns this year more than it had last year and insurance industry this year, stands the risk of paying heavy penalty on default as the insurance act placed a fine of N5000 daily for insurance firms that failed to meet the dead line.
What this means is that for a number of days it took those who will not file their returns before the final deadline to do so, the commission would multiply these days by N5000 and compel them to pay.
This is excluding the penalty such firms will still pay to the Security and Exchange Commssion (SEC) for failure to bit its own deadline.
Thisday
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