Adedapo Adesanya
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.
