Veritas Kapital Assurance Plc has released its consolidated and separate financial statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2018. The report shows a 40% increase in its gross premium.
The group’s gross premium rose from N2.4 billion in 2017 to N3.3 billion in the period under review, indicating an additional N922 million to its gross premium.
Veritas Kapital also recorded growth in its Net Premium which grew by 17% in 2018, hitting N1.9 billion up from N1.7 billion recorded in the 2017 financial year. Its loss after tax dropped to N695.2 million from N700.6 million in 2017.
According to the financial statement which was released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Veritas Kapital saw its Management Expenses increase by 41% from N2 billion to N2.9 billion in 2018.
Unclaimed Dividends Account: The group currently have about N24.2 million unclaimed dividends in an account with Unity Bank Plc as of December 31, 2018. The amount is jointly managed by both Veritas Kapital Assurance Plc and Unity Registrars Limited. Total unclaimed dividends as of December 31, 2017, was also N24.2 million.
2018 wasn’t good for Insurance firms: According to the statement by Veritas Kapital, the insurance sector was negatively impacted by the lingering effects of the economic recession experienced in 2017. This explained the poor growth levels reported by most companies in the sector.
The effects of the recession caused scarcity of capital that will enable the renewal of policy contracts in both life and general business. This affected the drive to deepen insurance among Nigerians as effort yielded no result.
2019 will be different: It has been predicted that premiums will rise 5.7% in 2019 after non-life market bounced back in 2018, recording 10.6% growth; this is despite not being able to deepen insurance among Nigerians post and pre-recession period.
The company says it is well-capitalised with robust liquidity and solvency margin above the required benchmark, and with the successful conduct of the 2019 election, the country will emerge stronger.
Veritas plans to improve its product offering and it’s committed to using innovation to better its services.
Note: As of May 22, 2019, Veritas Kapital traded at N0.21 kobo per share.
