Chiamaka Ajeamo
Nigeria’s foremost insurer, Leadway Assurance Company Limited, presenting its 2018 financial year results at its 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM), recently held in Lagos, declared an increase in claims paid in 2018 to N33.8 billion from N27.4 billion paid in 2017.
The company said it also recorded a 15 per cent growth in its assets base with N312.7billion recorded in 2018 as against N271.9billion in 2017 in addition to a 4 per cent increase in Gross Written Premium (GWP) from N84.1billion in 2017 to N87.5billion in 2018.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director/CEO, Hassan Odukale, reiterated that Leadway has continued to lead other industry players in the area of claims payment having paid claims in excess of N110 billion over the last five years. He however restated the company’s commitment to prompt claims payment as a cornerstone of its business principle.
Odukale said, “The value we have created over the years is embedded in the loyalty and commitment of the greatest number to keep Leadway as a legacy for several generations. We are sincerely grateful to our treasured customers, brokers, agents and other stakeholders, who have objectively trusted in the liquidity advantage and unmatched conservative risk reserves we hold as a yardstick for placing certain risks with us. We are equally grateful to them for the testimonial campaign which attest to us as the insurer to beat in claims payment.” Commenting on the future outlook of the company, Chairman, Board of Directors, General Martin LutherAgwai (retd) said, Leadway’s operation in 2019 and beyond would be driven by the strategy of using digitisation and creativity to harness unexploited and prompt means of selling insurance as a contingency benefit to its target market while also strategically deepening the penetration of insurance to smallholder farmers in every community through the instrumentality of Area Yield Index Crop insurance and creating insurance awareness in the rural communities.