Guinea Insurance Plc held its 63rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) recently to transact its ordinary and special businesses and receive relevant approvals from its stakeholders.
In accordance with set COVID-19 guidelines the AGM was held virtually to afford all stakeholders the same participatory rights as with a physical meeting.
Mr. Ugochukwu Godson, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Guinea Insurance Plc, ably represented by Mr. Samuel Onukwue, a Board Director, presided over the AGM, and as part of the ordinary business, presented the Audited Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2020, to shareholders, together with the Reports of the Directors and Auditors.
While giving a rearview mirror account of the Company’s journey in 2020, he acknowledged that “the year under review, will unfortunately be remembered for the impact that COVID-19 had on all aspect of lives, and the attendant turbulence in the global and domestic economic landscapes.”
While presenting its 2020 Financial Year results to its shareholders at the meeting, he further stated that despite the challenges faced in the year under review, “the Company recorded modest earnings, as Gross Premium Written stood at N1.08 billion in 2020, as against N1.29 billion in 2019, representing a decrease of 16.3%. Gross Premium Income also decreased by 10.3%, from N1.17 billion in 2019 to N1.05 billion in 2020. Net Premium Income decreased by 18.67%, from N902.4 million in 2019 to N733.9 million in 2020.
Owing to low single-digits interest rates in the fixed income market, Investment Income for the period under review decreased considerably by 50.1%, from N210.06 million in 2019 to N104.8 million in 2020.
The year resulted in a loss of N227.6 million as against N795 million recorded in 2019. We must note, however, that the accelerated digitisation of the Company’s customers engagement platforms, supply-chain interactions, and internal operations paid off, as the Loss for the Year dropped significantly by 71.3%.
The Company also recorded a 15.2% savings in its Operational Expenses, from N868.6 million in 2019 to N736.3 million reported in 2020, owing to Executive Management’s yearnings to achieve operational excellence while also embracing essential principles and methods to create significant improvement within the work environment.
The Chairman, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Boniface Okezie, acknowledged that “the year 2020 was understandably challenging, with the outbreak of a great disruption unleashed by a viral pandemic. The growth in the Nigerian economy has been crawling due to its infrastructure deficit, high interest rates, and security challenges, kidnapping, conflict between cattle herdsmen and farmers have all taken their toll on the Nigerian economy but, there was still a lot of scope for improvement. He commended the board and management of the Company for going over and above in ensuring a significant reduction in its loss profile by a whopping 71.3% in the year under review.
He further applauded the Company for the institution of a strategic alliance with the Lagos State Government, through its Agency – Lagos State Parks and Gardens (LASPARK), as the Company’s sustainable development agenda has provided a powerful framework for the Company to engage in corporate social responsibility thereby, putting its social license to work along the Jibowu axis of Lagos.
In a closing remark, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Guinea Insurance, Ademola Abidogun charged stakeholders of the company to look on the bright side of new things to come as the Board was raring to go with its continuous growth and development initiatives. In his words:
“Today, business is no longer, as usual, I make bold to say that we are alive to the current economic realities and our single-minded pursuit is to pull out all the stops on our path to success and return the Company on the path of sustainable profitability”.
