‘There are growth potentials in industry’

THE Managing Director/CEO, FBNInsurance Limited, Val Ojumah, has said that there are a lot of untapped opportunities in the nation’s insurance industry for the operators to develop and make a mark in the economy.

Speaking at a media roundtable as part of activities marking the fifth anniversary of the company in Lagos, said that there are growth potentials especially in the retail segment of the industry. According to him, over the past five years, we wanted to bring insurance to those people who ordinarily would not have been able to buy insurance, so we focused on retail distribution.

According to him, “From day one, we recognized that a large proportion of our population are indeed living with very small income, that is one of the major reasons why the people do not buy insurance. Therefore, we came up with ‘penny products’ that enables the ordinary people to buy insurance. Today have over 2,000 active people who are paying premium regularly to the company”.

In 2013, FBNInsurance pioneered mobile insurance in Nigeria with Airtel (Padi4life) and Etisalat (Sure4life) – an affordable airtime-based insurance with medical cover. “We pioneered mobile insurance through which we were able to bring insurance to people who otherwise would not talk about insurance.

As a result of this development, in two years of our existence, we were able to return profits to our investors. In this industry, one of the reasons that our stock prices are low is because our dividend payout has been next to nothing. But at FBNInsurance, we have changed all that. We have successfully been paying dividend to our shareholders since 2012”.

He said we are very proud of the fact that we have supported government in providing employment directly to over 1,500. “At FBNInsurance, hitherto known as FBN Life Assurance, recently acquired a 100 per cent shares in Oasis Insurance, a general insurance company, in our quest to deliver life and general businesses.

The company now has over 30 retail outlets and prides itself on a rich heritage of performance and longevity due to our association with FBN Holdings and the Sanlam Group, South Africa.”