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Despite Nigeria’s economic slowdown, major insurance companies have reported positive 2016 half-year results.
 
Aiico Insurance, the country’s second largest insurance company, said after-tax profit rose 78 percent to N1.4 billon, from N779.9 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.

The increase in Aiico Insurance’s profit derived from an increase in the company’s net premium income. Aiico said its net premium income rose to N10.4 billion in H1’16; it was N6.9 billion in the same period last year - a 48 percent increase.

Custodian and Allied (CAP), a financial services group with a large insurance business, also posted positive growth in earnings for the half-year ended June 30th. CAP said after-tax profit rose 10.3 percent to N2.9 billion in H1’16 compared with N2.6 billion in the same period last year.

The company’s profit outperformed analysts’ estimates of N2.2 billion, according to CardinalStone Partners, a Lagos-based investment advisory firm.

CAP’s profit was boosted by a stronger-than-expected increase in gross premium income, which rose 26.8 percent year-on-year to N13.5 billion. Buoyed by the higher premium income, CAP said its gross revenues from all its financial business – which includes trusteeship and pensions – rose 26.5 percent to N17.1 billion.

AXA Mansard, the local subsidiary of French insurance giant, AXA, said its after-tax profit rose 110 percent to N2.3 billion in H1’16 from N1.1 billion in the corresponding period last year.

The growth in AXA Mansard’s profit resulted from the impact of the naira devaluation on the company’s foreign currency denominated assets. AXA Mansard said foreign exchange gains rose to N2.3 billion in H1’16 as against a forex loss of N237.3 million in H1’15.

AXA Mansard reported that lower re-insurance expenses caused net premium income to rise to N5.5 billion 15 percent, from N4.8 billion a year ago.

According to the National Insurance Commission, the largest insurance companies in Nigeria by gross premium as at 2014 are: Leadway Assurance, with a 33.73 percent market share; Aiico Insurance, with a 17.77 percent market share; and Axa Mansard, with 11.35 percent market share.