By Yakubu LAAH investadvocate

Oct 28 2010 10.20 GMT

Lagos(INVESTADVOCATE)-Insurance Giants, Standard Alliance Life Assurance Ltd (SA Life) operating in the Life Insurance Sector of the Nigerian economy has reported N6.1 billion revenue.

This was contained in Statement Wednesday October 27 2010 by Nelson Egboboh, Head, Group Corporate Communications of the Standard Alliance Group and made available to investadvocate in Lagos Nigeria.

To achieve this feat, the Statement affirmed that the nation’s frontline life underwriting company’s total production both from premium written and investment-linked products rose from N6.1 billion in 2009 Financial Year End (FYE) to N3.1 billion in year 2008 end; indicating a rise of 96.77 percent (96.77%) in the review period.

 

Also,  SA Life paid out a total claim of N395.5 million in 2009 compared to N148.2 million in 2008; representing an increase of 166.9% as total claims paid.

In his address, at the Company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held Tuesday October 26 in Lagos Nigeria, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, Chairman of SA Life affirmed that in gross production, premium written in year 2009 amounted to N1.5 billion compared to N1.2 billion in the same period of year 2008 indicating a rise of 25%.

While revenue from investment-linked products grew from N1.9 billion in year  2008 to N4.6 billion in 2009 showing an increase of N142.10% in the period under review.

A further breakdown of the year 2009 end, Emerhor affirmed that Profit Before Taxation (PBT) and exceptional item dropped from N310 million in 2008 to N251 million in 2009 representing a decrease of 19.03%. “The provision for exceptional item of N910 million affected the reserve of the company. This also led to a decline in Total Assets from N5.7 billion to N5.1 billion in the review period.

“2009 was quite a challenging year for all facets of business including the insurance industry as a result of the effects of the financial crises”  Emerhor said.

He further affirmed that the cumulative effect on the Nigerian business space was that monetary policy-making seems to have come to the crossroads.

There are low deposits rates with high inflation, lending rates are high with no credit delivery, which led to both excess liquidity and cash/credit crunch at the same time.

“Such conflicting variables have no known definition in economic science. Despite these unusually manifestations and low business activities, the fundamental strength of our business have led to a relatively good result as I have earlier explained” he affirmed.

In the same vein, Austin Enajemo-Isire, Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of the Life Insurance Company assured that the Board and Management have resolved to maintain the various strategies that ensured the acquisition of new businesses and retaining existing ones through the delivery of superior services at all times.

“We will consolidate on the large branch network to reach out to potential clients who desire our products,” he said.

Isire also stated that the Information Technology network of SA Life is in the making to link all the locations to the Head Office.

Again, the company has introduced electronic means of receipts and payments (e-business) in order to give its numerous clients the best service delivery.

“We will continue to strengthen our relationship with our brokers and work more closely with them to create better values for our existing and prospective clients” Isire said.

He further affirmed that the current state of the economy characterised by great uncertainties and unstable policies require highly skilled people to do the job.

 

“We will, therefore, not relent in the development and training of the workforce to get the best from them. In the year to come, the board and management will give great priority to training and development,” he said.

Isire explained that “the slow-down of the global and domestic economies has great impact on client’s investment plan, affirming however, that the fundamental strength of the business and significant after-market revenue gives Company optimism for the future.”