Sections
Poll: Ministry of Niger Delta
Do you support the recently-established ministry of Niger Delta?
‘Insurance patronage will receive major boost this year’
Font size:
Expectation in insurance industry in 2008
The industry today, is on a speedy pedestal. People are beginning to recognise insurance as business and believing that it is the bedrock of the economy. On that recognition, we believe that people will patronise insurance this year more than ever before. Moreover, we believe that the economy looking at the budget and focus of the government will result to a lot of activities that will enhance insurance operation from all angles. We believe that this year will be a commencing year to good things that will happen to the insurance industry.
Emergence of Insurance PHB
Insurance PHB is a name that is taking over GTI Insurance Company Limited. GTI Insurance before now, used to be one of the leading companies in the industry by all standards. But as you are aware during the last recapitalisation, Bank PHB acquired GTI and since February last year we have been repackaging and reengineering the processes before bringing it to the public. Now, we are ready because we have used the last ten months to repackage all arrears of our operation and now we want to tell the public that we are ready to fly.
Having reengineered our processes, we can today claim that between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on the scope of the risk, we can deliver policy documents because we are fully automated including our branches, running a wide area network and intranet within which is supported by the Visat of our parent company, Bank PHB.
Our capital has increased from the N350 million it use to be to N5.2 billion in the sense that N3 billion was paid for the General Business while N2 billion has now been given to us for the life arm. Until the life licence is released, we have the general business arm underwriting all non life classes of business including health because we have a licence for Health Management Organisation (HMO). We believe that our life licence will soon be given to us.
Our staff strength has so increased because we are running to be big; we are running with the intention of becoming one of the three leading insurance companies by the year 2010. And for us to succeed in doing this, we need additional staff and we have been recruiting staff since August last year and we now have sufficient staff to commence operation with, in our new outlook.
Before now, we had 12 branches but right now we have been given additional 100 outlets where we either run our insurance offices or we have a full fledge branch office. In redefining the standard of our operation and doing things a new. We have designed to run a paperless office which means that in all our branches and head office starting from the first of February, everything will be automated including our files will now be in the system. These will tell you how speedily we intend to run.
Focus on service delivery
On our claims management, we have drawn up service agreements with all our major clients that will give a conviction that we are ready and now have a passion for service and serving our customers, serving them on time, settling claims in 24 hours after due processing. We introduced this system long a ago but now we want to bring it to the fore, that is, once a discharge form is signed by our client, claims processing could be one day, one week, one month depending on the class of business. If it is own car or own damage, claims could take a day, it could take one week. But where you have marine claims for instance where you have third party and you have prolonged system of processing it could take one month, it could take two weeks. The situation now in the industry for lost vehicles is that we give thirty days for police to tidy up what they are doing, but in our process it is one month. We can afford to settle earlier than others because we have the Auto Tracker installed in all our insured vehicles where comprehensive. Where the vehicle cannot be found within a period, we settle the claim; we won’t wait for thirty days. So, we are changing the industry standard in other to add value to the client.
Innovations
Talking about innovation and the quality we stand for, we didn’t just want to become one of top the three leading insurance companies just in the area of premium income, we want to increase our asset base, we want to increase our turn over, we want to increase our level of innovativeness.
As we are lunching this company, we are launching with it two new products that we have been given licence on.
One of them is called the Passenger Manifest Scheme which cover passenger’s whether those in luxurious busses, mini buses or passengers on Nigerian water ways either by commercial flying boat or mini-ships.
The scheme covers their passengers who pay them fares daily for inter state, federal domestic or international journeys within the West African sub region.
There are over 120 designated hospitals to treat injured passengers all over the country. The hospitals have the list of registered vehicle owners association in the scheme. The second product, Insurance PHB WESPOH is a group accident insurance policy designed to cover all political office holders in the Federal, State and Local Government arms and those in the National and States Houses of Assembly. The policy is designed to run for a four- year term but renewable annually. As you are aware, our company developed the best product last year which is the Auto-Tracker Motor Insurance Policy that won award for the company. What we have promised the industry is that we will be turning out at least every half year two new products that will add value to the services that we give to the public. We will only be known for innovative services and product development to the insurance industry. This is where we.
What we have just done after this reengineering is to unveil our new logo, new identity. We are leaving our present office to a more corporate office of five storeys building in Keffi Street. By first week in February we will commence our operation there.
Coming on board by Bank PHB
In actual fact, big minds flock together. Bank PHB was looking for a proactive company that has the same flare like they do. They believe that one day motor vehicle should run on water, that water would be used as fuel. That is to say, they believe in very difficult terrain and that is exactly our believe. We had on our own believed equally that one day with advancement in technology, motor cars will fly particularly when there is too much hold up. You are on third mainland and there is hold up, you just press one button and in seconds you find your self in Lagos. We were taking time to look at the risk that will emanate from that because vehicles will crash on the air. We are trying to proactively take care of such risks before they come and that is why you see us developing products and doing what others are not doing and people has known us to be ideas company. People who think. And that is what Bank PHB saw in us and they believe we can go together. Although the way it happened, they had upper hand because as at the time it happened we had no option than to give them majority equity of the company. The marriage is smooth and so, we say it has been good.
Value addition from Bank PHB
In the first place, we have to ride on their goodwill. The have better goodwill and they spend money to nurture it. Secondly, they have businesses and it is our expectation that 30 percent of our premium income will come from their customers and their operations and that will give us a very strong cushion to now get the other 70 percent. This year we have budgeted to generate N12.7 billion premium income if we are given our life licence, combined with income from our health care and general business. Our bancassurance arm takes care of all the desk offices in the bank spread across it’s over 100 branches. The bank is running a one bank strategy which means that as we are selling insurance, we will equally sell bank products to generate income for the bank. So, bancassurance is important and is central to what we are doing.
Offering the insurance company’s share to the public
People have been clamouring for our going public and that will come by the end of this year. We want to get to the market strong, we want to get to the market with a minimum premium income of N12 billion and with a profit of not less than N2 billion. I believe that with this, we will be positioned rightly in the market and not to enter the market at a very low price. We want to enter strong. People are clamouring for our shares already because they want to be part of us. But we believe that all this will happen from the end of this year when our bank would have finished with its public offer which has just been concluded.
Emergence of Insurance PHB
Insurance PHB is a name that is taking over GTI Insurance Company Limited. GTI Insurance before now, used to be one of the leading companies in the industry by all standards. But as you are aware during the last recapitalisation, Bank PHB acquired GTI and since February last year we have been repackaging and reengineering the processes before bringing it to the public. Now, we are ready because we have used the last ten months to repackage all arrears of our operation and now we want to tell the public that we are ready to fly.
Having reengineered our processes, we can today claim that between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on the scope of the risk, we can deliver policy documents because we are fully automated including our branches, running a wide area network and intranet within which is supported by the Visat of our parent company, Bank PHB.
Our capital has increased from the N350 million it use to be to N5.2 billion in the sense that N3 billion was paid for the General Business while N2 billion has now been given to us for the life arm. Until the life licence is released, we have the general business arm underwriting all non life classes of business including health because we have a licence for Health Management Organisation (HMO). We believe that our life licence will soon be given to us.
Our staff strength has so increased because we are running to be big; we are running with the intention of becoming one of the three leading insurance companies by the year 2010. And for us to succeed in doing this, we need additional staff and we have been recruiting staff since August last year and we now have sufficient staff to commence operation with, in our new outlook.
Before now, we had 12 branches but right now we have been given additional 100 outlets where we either run our insurance offices or we have a full fledge branch office. In redefining the standard of our operation and doing things a new. We have designed to run a paperless office which means that in all our branches and head office starting from the first of February, everything will be automated including our files will now be in the system. These will tell you how speedily we intend to run.
Focus on service delivery
On our claims management, we have drawn up service agreements with all our major clients that will give a conviction that we are ready and now have a passion for service and serving our customers, serving them on time, settling claims in 24 hours after due processing. We introduced this system long a ago but now we want to bring it to the fore, that is, once a discharge form is signed by our client, claims processing could be one day, one week, one month depending on the class of business. If it is own car or own damage, claims could take a day, it could take one week. But where you have marine claims for instance where you have third party and you have prolonged system of processing it could take one month, it could take two weeks. The situation now in the industry for lost vehicles is that we give thirty days for police to tidy up what they are doing, but in our process it is one month. We can afford to settle earlier than others because we have the Auto Tracker installed in all our insured vehicles where comprehensive. Where the vehicle cannot be found within a period, we settle the claim; we won’t wait for thirty days. So, we are changing the industry standard in other to add value to the client.
Innovations
Talking about innovation and the quality we stand for, we didn’t just want to become one of top the three leading insurance companies just in the area of premium income, we want to increase our asset base, we want to increase our turn over, we want to increase our level of innovativeness.
As we are lunching this company, we are launching with it two new products that we have been given licence on.
One of them is called the Passenger Manifest Scheme which cover passenger’s whether those in luxurious busses, mini buses or passengers on Nigerian water ways either by commercial flying boat or mini-ships.
The scheme covers their passengers who pay them fares daily for inter state, federal domestic or international journeys within the West African sub region.
There are over 120 designated hospitals to treat injured passengers all over the country. The hospitals have the list of registered vehicle owners association in the scheme. The second product, Insurance PHB WESPOH is a group accident insurance policy designed to cover all political office holders in the Federal, State and Local Government arms and those in the National and States Houses of Assembly. The policy is designed to run for a four- year term but renewable annually. As you are aware, our company developed the best product last year which is the Auto-Tracker Motor Insurance Policy that won award for the company. What we have promised the industry is that we will be turning out at least every half year two new products that will add value to the services that we give to the public. We will only be known for innovative services and product development to the insurance industry. This is where we.
What we have just done after this reengineering is to unveil our new logo, new identity. We are leaving our present office to a more corporate office of five storeys building in Keffi Street. By first week in February we will commence our operation there.
Coming on board by Bank PHB
In actual fact, big minds flock together. Bank PHB was looking for a proactive company that has the same flare like they do. They believe that one day motor vehicle should run on water, that water would be used as fuel. That is to say, they believe in very difficult terrain and that is exactly our believe. We had on our own believed equally that one day with advancement in technology, motor cars will fly particularly when there is too much hold up. You are on third mainland and there is hold up, you just press one button and in seconds you find your self in Lagos. We were taking time to look at the risk that will emanate from that because vehicles will crash on the air. We are trying to proactively take care of such risks before they come and that is why you see us developing products and doing what others are not doing and people has known us to be ideas company. People who think. And that is what Bank PHB saw in us and they believe we can go together. Although the way it happened, they had upper hand because as at the time it happened we had no option than to give them majority equity of the company. The marriage is smooth and so, we say it has been good.
Value addition from Bank PHB
In the first place, we have to ride on their goodwill. The have better goodwill and they spend money to nurture it. Secondly, they have businesses and it is our expectation that 30 percent of our premium income will come from their customers and their operations and that will give us a very strong cushion to now get the other 70 percent. This year we have budgeted to generate N12.7 billion premium income if we are given our life licence, combined with income from our health care and general business. Our bancassurance arm takes care of all the desk offices in the bank spread across it’s over 100 branches. The bank is running a one bank strategy which means that as we are selling insurance, we will equally sell bank products to generate income for the bank. So, bancassurance is important and is central to what we are doing.
Offering the insurance company’s share to the public
People have been clamouring for our going public and that will come by the end of this year. We want to get to the market strong, we want to get to the market with a minimum premium income of N12 billion and with a profit of not less than N2 billion. I believe that with this, we will be positioned rightly in the market and not to enter the market at a very low price. We want to enter strong. People are clamouring for our shares already because they want to be part of us. But we believe that all this will happen from the end of this year when our bank would have finished with its public offer which has just been concluded.
Add to:
del.icio.us |
Digg
del.icio.us |
Digg
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain text
Comments ( posted):
Post your comment