Dr. Stephen Dike, Chairman, Niger Insurance Plc told shareholders at the firm’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos that the future of the company remains bright, as it will continue to leverage its market positioning, age advantage and brand equity.
Dike said the company still retains its transformational drive to generate sustainable growth and profitability through identified four major areas:
• Strengthening and realigning our business model and practices with the realities of the market, industry and the economy in general and ensuring their consistency with best practices and standards.
• Strengthening our balance sheet through aggressive and strategic recapitalisation; ensuring that assets carrying values represent conservative estimates; and ensuring adequacy of provisioning/ reserve for liabilities as necessary to achieve a formidable balance sheet
• Reorganising and strengthening our workforce to establish a management team that is inspiring and able to effectively lead or support the imperative strategic transformation aspirations and profitable growth performance objectives of the Board and shareholders
• S t r e n g t h e n i n g a n d institutionalising a strict c o r p o r a t e go v e r n a n c e framework that will enhance the overall capacity of the company to create long-term sustainable shareholder value.
He said the aim is to stimulate performance, improve operating efficiency, rebuild and enhance Niger’s good reputation, improving access to capital markets, and assuring strict compliance with regulatory requirements.
Mr. Edwin Igbiti, the Managing Director of Niger Insurance Plc added that the company is investing in data analytics and technology to differentiate its offerings, drive sales, improve service standards and operating efficiency.
“We have upgraded our information systems (including our core insurance application) and deployed digital platforms and technology solutions to all our office locations across the country. Furthermore, we have reviewed our locations strategy to align with target markets/segments as well as optimize costs. Also, we are redesigning and simplifying our offerings to allow flexible pricing and varying customer preferences. I have no illusions that there is still a lot of work ahead and trust that we can count on the continued support of our esteemed shareholders and other stakeholder groups over the long-term.”