Economy
Nigeria’s Insurance Premiums Grow Above N1trn
By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has revealed that Nigeria’s insurance sector crossed the N1 trillion mark as the industry recorded a total premium of N1.003 trillion in the last quarter of 2023 (Q4 2023).
In a statement titled Market Performance At A Glance-Q4 -2023 released by the Statistics Department Directorate of Research, Statistics and Publications, it was disclosed that, “The insurance industry of Nigeria has sustained its progressive trend of positive market performance at the close of 2023 fourth quarter, recording a milestone growth to close at N1.003 trillion, representing about 27 per cent growth compared to the N790 billion recorded in 2022.”
The commission gave a breakdown of how the premium was generated, saying the non-life business accounted for 61.3 per cent of all premiums written during the year while the life segment contributed 38.7 per cent valued at N388.1 billion.
The statement further said the market also recorded a retention of about 87.7 per cent for the life business, just about 54 per cent for non-life, while the aggregate market average retention stood at 66.7 per cent during the same period.
According to NAICOM, the major growth drivers in the non-life segment of the market were oil & gas and fire insurance, which contributed 27.3 per cent and 24.1 per cent, respectively. Motor insurance contributed N114.8 billion, general accident generated N59.1 billion, and marine raked in N69.1 billion.
Net motor insurance premiums stood at N100.3 billion, fire recorded N75.3 billion, general accident posted 39.0 billion, marine reported 33.5, while oil and gas stood at N54.6 billion.
In terms of market performance percentages – motor insurance polled 66.5 per cent, fire polled 46.9 per cent, general accident posted 6.7 per cent, marine recorded 30.9 per cent, while oil and gas reported 25.5 per cent.
Talking in terms of claims settlement for the period, the commission said, “Direct reflection to the ongoing regulatory measures regarding claims settlement, the life business recorded about 95 per cent of net claims to the total recorded claims during the year while the market average stood at about 71.4 per cent of the N536.5 billion gross claims reported at the close of fourth quarter, 2023.”
The agency further noted that in a direct reflection of its “no-premium no-cover” policy, the outstanding premium has continued to decline, as the industry posted just 1.6 per cent outstanding of all the premiums generated in the market during the period.
It further said within the period under review, total assets of the sector stood at about N2.67 trillion, while capitalisation stood at N851 billion in 2023.
Giving a break down of claims payment by various classes, NAICOM said the motor insurance class paid gross claims of N32.1 billion and net claims of N31.0 billion, the fire insurance class paid gross claims of N61.5 billion and net claims of N41.3 billion, general accident paid gross claims of N22.3 billion and net claims of 17.0 billion, marine class had gross claims of N16.9 billion and net claims of 12.0 billion while oil and gas class had gross claims of N157.1 billion and net of N54.6 billion.
In terms of market size NAICOM said non-life had N1.669 billion assets, life had N1.00 billion, bringing the market aggregate to N2.673 billion, while by market capitalisation, non-life had N670.2 billion and life totaled N180.9 billion, bringing the aggregate to N851.0 billion.
In terms of outstanding premiums, the non-life outstanding premium stood at just 2.5 per cent of the total premium, while life was pegged at 0.2 per cent bringing the aggregate of outstanding premium for the industry in the period under review to 1.6 per cent.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.
This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.
The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.
The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.
The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.
The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.
Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.
It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.
On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day
Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.
Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).
The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.
The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.
The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.
According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”
Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.
For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.
The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.
There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.
“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.
“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.
The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.
The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.
Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.
The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.
According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.
In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.
It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.
In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.
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