By Nike Popoola

The National Insurance Commission has refuted reports that the commission will return the 2010 financial reports of insurance companies that fail to meet the International Financial Reporting Standards.

The Technical Director, Finance, NAICOM, Mr. George Onekhena, was said to have disclosed this “in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on Tuesday.

A statement from NAICOM on Thursday said, “We want to state categorically that there is no truth whatsoever in that report.”

It stated that Onekhena was not in Lagos on the said Tuesday and could not have granted the said interview to NAN.

It said, “This is evident in the mix-up in Onekhena’s designation. Mr. Onekhena is deputy commissioner, finance and administration and not technical director, finance as NAN puts it.”

It added that there was a road map for the implementation of the IFRS and it was billed to come into effect in 2012 and not 2010.

NAICOM said it had organised three enlightenment workshops in Lagos for insurance managing directors, chief executives, board directors and chief accounting officers.

Onekhena, it stated, was very much involved in the organisation of those workshops, and could therefore not have said that “Financial Reports for the financial year ended December 31, 2010 must be IFRS compliant.”

Source: Punch