African Alliance Hosts NCRIB Members Evening

Posted on: 24th Feb 2021

During the NCRIB Brokers Evening hosted by African Alliance Insurance Plc on the 23rd of February, our MD/CEO, Mrs Joyce Ojemudia delivered a speech to all members. She spoke on our continued success, progress on recapitalisation and plans for the future.

See excerpts below,

I stand here as an evangelist of insurance in general and African Alliance in particular. As we all know, African Alliance is Nigeria’s foremost indigenous life insurer, with 61 years of unmatched heritage in the industry. For some time now, we have been the subject of immense attention. This is not unconnected to our pride of place in the comity of insurers in Nigeria as well as our long history with NCRIB with whom we share the same progenitor. Our pioneering efforts in product innovation is there for all to see.

RECAPITALIZATION
We know it will interest you to know what we are doing-especially as it pertains to the elephant in the room, the recapitalisation of our company. We are glad to give you a detailed position this afternoon.

Recall that at several fora, we had highlighted 3 strategic direction to meet the then NAICOM threshold of N8bn. These 3 strategic directions are;

1. Asset Conversion
It delights us to inform you that on the 22nd of December, 2020, we concluded the sale of one of our main assets to raise some funds all of which have been reinvested into the business. We now have a healthy shareholders fund with an increased asset base.

2. Rights Issue/New Investor
Furthermore, our Board of Directors as well as targeted significant shareholders are on the verge of injecting additional funds into the company through private placement which will further improve the capital base of the Company. This is expected to be concluded before the end of Q2 2021.

3. Business Combination
This would be considered in the event that the two options above don’t come through. However, this is the last resort and we might not explore this option at all.

CLAIMS PAYMENT
As many of you now know, in the first 40 days of the 2021 business year alone, we paid N967m in claims. Breaking it down, we paid N148.2m to 155 individual life customers, N307.5m to 141 Group Life claimants, N124.1m to 168 Takaful claimants not forgetting, N387.3m to our annuitants. You will recall that in the last quarter of 2020, we paid over N2.3bn in claims in line with our continued drive for customer satisfaction. As of today, our GPI has increased by 105% compared with the same period last year. Thanks, to all of you, because you made these happen!!
For the year 2020 figures, we are just waiting for the conclusion of the external audit so we can provide information based on audited financials.

GOING FORWARD
In 2021 and beyond, we will continue to excite you with stakeholder-focused innovation, constant claims payment whilst using technology to scale operations. Our strategy is clear and simple: customer satisfaction at all cost. As you may know, we were recently certified by the International Organization for Standardization and awarded the ISO 22301, a testimonial to our highly effective competitive advantage with respect to organizational reputation, credibility, process, and resilience to environmental volatility. This is an assurance of our business continuity.
We have also restructured our claims department and customer services unit to give the top of the range service to our esteemed customers and shortly we will be launching a claims app to ease the filing of claims with a quick response.

We hereby solicit your support on all fronts. Especially, by increased business patronage. Our team is way stronger than ever and we have remained steadfast in our commitment to do better by you, better by our customers and better by the books.

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, the Holy Book says, Trust in the Lord, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge Him, He will make your paths straight. Our trust is in the Lord, by His grace, African Alliance is rising. With your support, African Alliance will fulfil His divine plan for us.

Thank you for your continued support!

African Alliance pays N967m claims in 40 days

Posted on: 17th Feb 2021

As our lifelong commitment, we have continued to fulfil our obligations to our customers with claims payment, we have paid N967m claims in the first 40 days of the 2021 business year.

Our Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Joyce Ojemudia, restated our claims commitment in her statement “For us at African Alliance, we are poised to continue our renewed commitment to fulfilling our stated obligations to our stakeholders.

“Paying claims as due, therefore, is non-negotiable. Indeed, the bedrock of a sustainable insurance business is a mutually beneficial arrangement where the insured and the insurer both stick to their obligations to each other without fail.”

“Between the first of January and now, we have paid about N148.2m to 155 individual life customers, N307.5m to 141 group life claimants, N124.1m to 168 Takaful claimants, not forgetting some N387.3m to our annuitants.

“We won’t shirk our responsibilities; we have promised to remain with our customers for life, we will not relent on our oars as we continue to excite our policyholders.”

You can read more about our claims payment here

Notice of the 51st Annual General Meeting of African Alliance Insurance PLC

Posted on: 5th Oct 2020

This is to inform the general public that the 51st Annual General Meeting of African Alliance PLC will hold at our Headquarters, 54, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos State on Tuesday (27th of October) at 10 am prompt.

For more information, click here.

CSR: We Commissioned a Basketball Court in LASPOTECH

Posted on: 27th Aug 2020

Jerry Jones said, “Sports gives us the grandest opportunity of all to talk about reaching down and helping up or getting on somebody else’s shoulders.”

At African Alliance, we truly believe this and more. Sports give youths the opportunity to learn the spirit of teamwork, build good habits, confidence, and discipline. They make players into community leaders and teach them how to strive for a goal, handle mistakes, and cherish growth opportunities.

Earlier this year, as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, we donated and commissioned a basketball court to the Lagos State Polytechnic. In attendance are Victor Peters – Head of Agency, Marcel Okorie – Head, Individual Life, Bode Raji – Head, Finance

It is an honor to give the students of LASPOTECH the platform to do and be more.

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CSR: We donated Classroom Furniture To LASU

Posted on: 21st Aug 2020

In February 2020, we donated 5 Book Shelves, 120 Single Seater Chairs, 12 Five Seater Single-Sided Table and 10 Six Double-Sided Table to the Faculty of Management Science, LASU (Lagos State University).

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African Alliance earns ISO 22301:2012: Certificate of Business Continuity Management

Posted on: 6th Aug 2020

As Nigeria’s foremost life insurer, we have been awarded the ISO 22301:2012 certificate for Business Continuity Management (BCM). The certificate which was awarded by the Professional Evaluation and Certification Board (PECB) signifies that African Alliance has met the requirements for Business Continuity Management (BCM).

“We promised our stakeholders that we would be with them for life, the achievement of the ISO certificate for Business Continuity Management further validates that promise. It is another testament to our unflinching commitment to providing our customers the best of us come rain or shine,” said Olabisi Adekola, our Executive Director, Finance, who also doubles as our Business Continuity Management Leader. “Recall that at the start of the global pandemic, African Alliance was one of the earliest to activate its Business Continuity plans which enabled us to effectively deliver on our various commitments to our esteemed customers nationwide with very little disruption,” She added.

ISO 22301:2012 is a globally recognized Business Continuity management standard developed and published by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). This standard provides a model that organizations of all types and sizes can use in building an effective Business Continuity System. ISO 22301 specifies the requirements for a management system to protect against, reduce the likelihood of and ensure a business recovers from disruptive incidents.

In his statement, our Brand, Media and Communications Manager, Bankole Banjo, said “For 60 years and counting, we have navigated the murkiest of waters and survived it all. The achievement of the ISO 22301 accreditation, therefore, provides further assurance that African Alliance has a robust program in place to maintain business continuity, even under the most unforeseen and challenging conditions.”
Incorporated in 1960, African Alliance is a leading life insurer with over 20 branches and sales outlets servicing over 50,000 customers nationwide.

Our Objective Is To Become Insurer Of Choice – Funmi Omo

Posted on: 13th Jul 2020

MRS Funmilayo Omo is one of the leading lights in Nigeria’s and Africa’s corporate world steering the affairs of the 60-year-old company.

With about 30 years of experience and proven track record of success in insurance sales, product development, technical underwriting, result-oriented people management having to be a part of the transformation and advancement of the Nigerian insurance industry; she earned her position as the first female Managing Director/CEO of African Alliance Insurance Plc (AAI).

Funmi Omo is the first MD in the history of the company to champion and successfully accomplish the rebranding and digital transformation of the firm, with the help of experts from https://practicepath.com/ since its inception. Recently, she was named amongst the top 100 female CEOs in Africa by Reset Global in acknowledgment of her performance and excellence in the industry.

In this interview with Daily Sun, the innovative and transformational leader talks about her company at 60 in business operations, issues in the insurance industry, and the way forward post COVID-19.

Excerpts:

Alliance at 60: Journey so far

African Alliance is a foremost life insurance company, incorporated on May 6, 1960, and founded by the inimitable duo, of Chief S.L Edu and Mr. Talabi Braithwaite, who were widely regarded as the first chartered insurance practitioners in Nigeria. Munich Re was a coowner and technical partner. Their vision was simple: to be the most preferred life insurance company of choice. To achieve these, the firm set out to make the customers its primary focus, that would create a lasting legacy for themselves in the lives of Nigerians.

Building a lasting legacy means having a string of innovations under your belt. African Alliance is notably famous amongst others for being the first life insurance firm to introduce Takaful; an Islamic compliant insurance scheme in Nigeria. This feat was achieved under the leadership of the then CEO, Mr. Ope Oredugba in 2002, who had, in the wake of the introduction of the Sharia law in parts of the north, felt there was a niche in that line of insurance that could appeal to the region. The impact of Takaful in Nigeria was so great that less than six months after its formal launch, the company was being inundated with requests from within and outside the African continent by those seeking to benefit from the products. Today, Takaful has grown into one of the most viable business lines in AAI so much that it has easily warmed its way into the hearts of non-Muslims alike.

In the past 60 years, through consistent hard work of its managers, AAI has steadily grown to become among the top five life insurance companies in the country. From humble beginnings at 112 Broad Street, Marina, Lagos, it has expanded its operations to 18 branches nationwide and has a regional subsidiary, Ghana Life based in Accra. Its customer base has also grown with over fifty thousand (50,000) policyholders in its books.

Targets, priorities as CEO

My immediate priority is to drive premium income along all the product lines and business units.

Already, we have targets set for this purpose. My second priority is organizational development; to develop our people in the organization because we can only be as strong as the quality of people in the organization. The third one is to ensure that we sustain and possibly improve on visibility because driving visibility will also help the brand and dovetail into the bottom-line. So, for us here at African Alliance, those are the key priorities for this year and I believe we have put structures and mechanisms in place to enable us to achieve these objectives and we are driving it aggressively.

To improve our visibility; I mean we want to be in the mind, face, and in the heart of every Nigerian. We just don’t want to be a household name but a household thought. We want to be the best, the preferred.

Recapitalisation plans

I wish I could specifically list our step-by-step plans towards recapitalisation but as you know, this is
a very sensitive topic and I cannot say much. However, I can assure you that we have the support of the shareholders on our plans and we are already in the middle of the execution of the plans we have towards recapitalisation and; we are sure we will be long done before the deadline. We are confident that with the kind of support we have received from shareholders and the plans we have in place; we will meet the deadline.

Business strengths and sustainability

Being in existence for 60 years means there must be something we are doing right The major thing that has kept us in business is the customer and the customer experience and that is what we keep improving on and this is how we keep raising the bar. So, every activity here is channeled towards improving customer experience and this is what has distinguished us from as an organisation and sustained the brand.

Relationships go a long way in sustaining businesses and this has been my value proposition for three decades now. Keeping relationships is where my interest and passion come from so, the ability to manage customers overtime, retain them, keeping them satisfied continuously has kept us in business.

Hence, infrastructure, processes, and the personnel all focus on our customers. In the rapidly evolving insurance industry, the choice of platform is critical for delivering quality service. The right platform, such as the one provided here, enables insurers to process claims efficiently, maintain customer satisfaction, and ensure a competitive advantage. Therefore, choosing the right platform is crucial to success in the insurance industry. We have a team of professionals that manage the business and we constantly improve on our processes in the business. We just recently got our ISO Certification and this is part of business advancement because we have a business continuity plan in place which supports that.

Lastly, we have strength in the familial leaning of the company. We are one big family. This culture has been with us since inception and I am the latest in line of home-grown CEOs the company has seen, albeit the first female CEO.

Challenges and lessons learned

The challenges we have had over the years have been competition, the business environment. As you can see the investment climate has been very volatile right now and interest rate fluctuation is sometime else. Another challenge is the global economy generally because the world has become a global village and whatever happens in business on the global scene has a way of impacting businesses locally.

A typical example is this current pandemic; the COVID-19 the world is battling with. With this pandemic now, we still need to manage the recapitalisation exercise and still run our business. The major lesson these challenges has taught us, especially COVID-19, is that you must always factor into your business the fact that things can change at any time and this is why business continuity is very crucial; because it is the continuity of the business that will make you meet targets and also deliver value to all stakeholders.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic

The impact of the pandemic on the company’s profitability means more income for the company because life insurance is likely to sell more this period. As people who ordinarily do not give attention to the importance of life insurance which we have been preaching will do so now. On the flip side, there would be more claims as many affected by the pandemic would need to dip hands into their investments to get by. This was the reason they bought the policies in the first place; so, for any insurer to turn profits from the increased income, they have to ensure their actuarial valuations are top-notch so the expected increase in income is not wiped off by excessive claims.

Government role in easing challenges

Essentially, the government needs to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. The interest rate needs to be stabilized by the government. The government also needs to ensure that each sector needs to operate optimally. For instance, with respect to life insurance, up till now, the government that is the high spender is yet to pay a premium. In fact, throughout last year till now, it is yet to pay group life premium. What this means is that any employee of the federal government who died in service, will not get any death-in-service benefit.

Insurance performance in Nigeria

In terms of performance, there is still work to be done; we need to be more innovative and creative. These two elements are essential to insurance taking its rightful place in the industry. Huge creativity, innovation is needed and the delivery method of insurance needs to be improved upon. When these are structured, it will increase the level of penetration in Nigeria. It will bring a lot of investment in the retail sector of the economy because that is where we have most of the population; the bottom of the pyramid.

COVID-19 and the industry operation

Like every other company, COVID-19 has altered operations as digitalization is the new order now. Our digitalisation process has been accelerated. Now, most of our products are completely available for sales online without the need for any physical contact with a salesperson. Before now, we had gone paperless meaning we do minimal paper processing in-house, up to 98 percent of in-house processes are paperless.

Way forward post COVID-19

Way forward is what we call the new normal. Working from home will become a norm and already our Human Capital department is reworking its policies to ensure performance management is less dependent on presenteeism and about outcomes and results not just outputs.

Post recapitalisation narrative

Post recapitalisation, there will be more confidence on the part of the insuring public and financial strength on the part of operators. Recapitalisation aside bringing financial stability is equally part of confidence-building aimed at ensuring that the insuring public is happy, comfortable, and confident that their risks are being managed effectively. Therefore, since the exercise is to guarantee there is sufficient capital to match the risks that are being managed by insurers, I believe to a large extent that it will further instill and sustain the confidence the insuring public has in insurance and likewise change the negative perception of the industry since companies will have adequate capital to fully carry out their obligations effectively.

Enforcement of compulsory insurance

Regarding compulsory insurance, the government has tried by instituting it but they have also aided in ensuring it is not adhered to because they are not setting good examples for others to emulate by not paying their own parts of compulsory insurance premiums.

The government has a vital role to play in ensuring that they live up to the commitment they have made, thereby encouraging both the informal and private sectors to also obey the law. If the government obeys its laws, then the private and informal sectors would have no choice but to follow their lead. The only way we can ultimately have people obtain compulsory insurance is to have sanctions and this will happen when there are adequate management mechanisms put in place by the authorities.

Claims payment remains a sour point in the insurer-insured relationship

When people say claims are not honored, the first question I usually ask any person who says claims are not paid is if it is his/her experience or someone else’s. This is because there are times one thinks he/she has an insurance policy in place but in reality, there is none.

This could be a result of a variety of reasons; for example, the government issue of not paying group life premiums. In life insurance when a premium is not paid and the policy is not enforced if anything happens to that individual and death occurs, the beneficiary will not get any benefit. If the benefactor lays his/her hands on the document and comes for a claim, he/she is not entitled to any claim because premiums were not paid.

Also, in some cases, you find out that the cover and the claim are two different things. This means that what one is claiming may not be covered in the policy.

Notification of Delay in the Release of African Alliance Plc Audited Financial Statement

Posted on: 7th Jul 2020

African Alliance Insurance Plc wishes to notify its esteemed shareholders and other stakeholders that the Company’s Audited financial statements for the year ended 31st December 2019 (AFS) together with the Unaudited financial statements for the period ended 31st March 2020 could not be filled within the period of the extension granted by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (30th June 2020).

However, the Company has since concluded with the auditing of its accounts and has submitted the same to its primary regulator (the National Insurance Commission) for approval. Regretfully, the Company is yet to obtain the approval of NAICOM, hence the delay.

We sincerely regret any inconvenience that the anticipated delay may occasion to our esteemed shareholders and investing public at large. Please be reassured that the Management of the Company is working assiduously in following up with NAICOM to ensure that the said accounts are filed with the Exchange on or before 30th July 2020 or immediately the Commission (NAICOM) grants approval; whichever is earlier.

Thank you.

African Alliance Insurance Plc – Approval of Extension of Time to File Audited Financial Statement

Posted on: 8th Jun 2020

African Alliance Insurance Plc (hereinafter referred to as “the Company”), wishes to notify its esteemed shareholders and other stakeholders that the Company has obtained the approval of The Nigerian Stock Exchange (The Exchange) for extension of time to file its Audited Financial Statements (AFS) for the period ended 31st December 2019 and First Quarter Unaudited Financial Statements (UFS) for the period ended 31st March 2020.

The delay in filing the aforementioned accounts is due to the fact that the Company is still awaiting approval of its primary regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on the said accounts.

We sincerely regret any inconvenience that the anticipated delay may occasion to our esteemed shareholders and investing public at large. We are following up persistently to ensure that the company’s accounts are filed with The Exchange on or before 30th June 2020.

Thank you.

African Alliance: Relentless at 60!

Posted on: 29th May 2020

The place of African Alliance as a foremost life insurer in the comity of insurers in Nigeria is assured.

Incorporated on the 6^th of May, 1960, the Company was founded by the inimitable trio, Chief S.L Edu (CON), Mr. Talabi Braithwaite (CON), widely regarded as the first Chartered Insurance practitioner in these climes, and Chief M.E.R Okorodudu who provided legal support. They had technical support from global reinsurer, Munich Re, and their vision was simple: to be the most preferred life insurance company of choice. To achieve these, the Company set out to make the customers the primary focus, and create a lasting legacy for themselves in the lives of every Nigerian.

In building a lasting legacy and achieve the vision of a Company, it is important that the internal stakeholders have a sense of ownership and belonging. This much has been the driving force behind the African Alliance’s staying power: the family bond. Members of Staff see themselves not as colleagues but as members of one big family. Little wonder the Company boasts perhaps the highest number of long service personnel anywhere around. And it starts with the leadership, one ingrained with the culture and vision, and is able to pass it on.  The current crop of leaders mostly began their careers in the Company and grew through the ranks.   From the legendary Mr. Talabi Braithwaite to Chief M.O Odele, down to the venerable Mr. Ope Oredugba, and then the immediate past CEO, Mr. Alphonse Okpor and currently, Mrs. Funmi Omo, the first female CEO in the Company’s 60-year history, African Alliance has enjoyed homegrown inspirational leadership that works.

Mr. Ope Oredugba worked forty-odd years at African Alliance and retired as the Managing Director. In his words; “I was recruited by the first CEO, Mr. Talabi Braithwaite, who handed me to the best hands within the business who never gave up on me despite my tendency to be rascally.” Talk about a family looking out for one another. Mrs. Funmi Omo started her career at African Alliance in 1990, thirty years on, she leads a crop of professionals devoted to the Company like of old. “When I joined African Alliance I was a young passionate employee, and like many young people, the concept of being a CEO of such a large Company was far into the future…Today I have seen our Company rise and rise. I have witnessed transformations beyond my imagination. I have seen our people develop and become a family,” she said in a recent interview.

Building a lasting legacy means having a string of innovations under your belt.  African Alliance is notably famous amongst others for being the life insurance Company to introduce Takaful in Nigeria. This feat was achieved under the leadership of the then  CEO, Mr. Ope Oredugba in 2004, who had, in the wake of the introduction of the Sharia law in parts of the north, felt there was a niche in that line of insurance that could appeal to the region.

Takaful, also known as ethical insurance is based on the principles of mutual co-operation, solidarity, common interest, shared responsibility, joint indemnity, and brotherhood against unpredicted risk or catastrophes, in which the participants involved are expected to contribute genuinely. The innovation of Takaful in Nigeria enabled ethically-minded Nigerians to participate in insurance and get life covers for themselves and their families without any worry about their principles being compromised. The impact of Takaful in Nigeria was so great that less than six months into the formal launching of Takaful, an Islamic compliant insurance scheme, African Alliance was being inundated with requests from within and outside the African continent by those seeking the benefit from the products. It gets interesting. Today, Takaful has grown into one of the most viable business lines in the Company so much that it has easily warmed its way into the hearts of non-muslims alike.

In building a lasting legacy, African Alliance Insurance has ensured that they have been woven into the fabrics of Nigeria’s history.  Incorporated in 1960, the same year Nigeria gained its independence, since then the Company has been there through every monumental event in the country’s history. During the Nigerian Civil war, African Alliance was fully in operation.  The Company operated a closed fund for the eastern accounts, this means the premiums gathered from the east were not touched.  Rather they were safely kept until the war was over and surrendered policies and claims were paid to policyholders efficiently and effectively. This created love for the African Alliance brand in the east and till date, the east, especially Onitsha, is one of the Company’s most lucrative locations in terms of premium income earned. This singular act demonstrates integrity, one of the core values the company upholds. This has been further demonstrated again and again in the history of claims settlement. In 2019 alone, the Company paid over 9 billion Naira in claims settlement.

Where there is history to be made and national interest to be protected, there you will find African Alliance. When COVID-19 broke, the Company dug deep and started its charity from home, supporting a food outreach for residents of Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA, its immediate community. African Alliance also made financial contributions to the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) Covid-19 support fund. The NIA Covid-19 support fund was an initiative of the Nigerian Insurers Association aimed at mitigating the further spread of the virus in Nigeria. The funds raised were used in acquiring and distributing protective gear to the public as well as to the healthcare workers fighting against the Covid-19. The funds were also used to provide N1m free life insurance cover to healthcare professionals taking care of infected citizens.

Consistent and significant growth is essential in building a lasting legacy, for the past 60 years, African Alliance insurance has steadily grown from being a life insurance Company among many to be among the top five life insurance companies in the country. From humble beginnings at 112 Broad Street, Marina, African Alliance has expanded its operations to 18 branches nationwide and has a regional subsidiary, Ghana Life based in Accra. The Company’s customer base has also grown with over fifty thousand (50,000) policyholders in its books. After 60 years of such a thriving legacy, the most natural question is, what next?

According to the Company’s Executive Director, Finance, Mrs. Olabisi Adekola, African Alliance has no plans of slowing down: “…we give gratitude to our shareholders and our staff who are the reason we have grown into such a strong organization. At African Alliance, we are a family, and as families do, we are planning for an even greater future where we can give so much more value to our stakeholders.”

Talk about being relentless, this is the African Alliance story.