…as firm bets on technology, customer trust
Fortis Global Insurance Plc is moving into a new phase of growth after successfully strengthening its capital base, settling legacy obligations and restoring stability to its operations, with management now turning its attention to expanding premiums, improving customer service and using technology to deepen insurance penetration.
Bode Akinboye, group managing director of Fortis Global Holdings, said the insurer had completed much of the difficult work required to stabilise the business and was now focused on translating its stronger financial position into sustainable growth.
Akinboye said the company had stabilised its capital, revalued its assets, injected additional cash into the business and addressed long-outstanding obligations, giving it a stronger platform to compete in the market.
“We have stabilised the capital of the company, revalued the assets, injected additional cash into the business, and also paid off the long-outstanding debt,” he said.
The successful recapitalisation has shifted the company’s immediate focus from survival and balance-sheet repair to growth, with management identifying human capital, technology, product development and distribution as the key drivers of the next phase.
“If it’s capital, we have the capital. If it’s knowledge, we have knowledge. But the more people you have, the better the knowledge and the resources. You need people to turn institutions around,” Akinboye said.
He said Fortis Global was strengthening its workforce through training and motivation while also reviewing its products and pricing to make them more responsive to customers and market opportunities.
The company is also placing claims settlement at the centre of its strategy to rebuild customer confidence. Akinboye said Fortis Global had paid almost N700 million in outstanding pension benefits and had sustained monthly payments to pensioners, while also settling substantial obligations relating to investment-linked policies, group life and other claims.
In total, he said, the company had exceeded N2 billion in payments to stabilise retail customers.
“We are now at the point where anybody who calls to ask for their claim, we just reconcile that, verify, and pay,” he said.
For Akinboye, the ability to pay genuine claims promptly is the foundation on which an insurer’s reputation must be built.
“The only reason an insurance company is a business is to pay claims. If you are not paying claims, you have no story to tell,” he said.
With the clean-up largely completed, Fortis Global is now preparing to pursue more aggressive premium growth. Akinboye said the company had previously been unable to focus fully on growing its top line because management was occupied with resolving legacy issues.
“We are done with house-cleaning. We are now out to engage with our customers,” he said.
The company’s growth strategy will increasingly rely on technology and partnerships to expand distribution and reach customers at scale. Rather than depending solely on traditional one-on-one policy sales, Fortis Global plans to develop distribution models capable of bringing insurance to larger groups of customers.
“We are looking at a creative way of selling insurance on a large scale,” Akinboye said.
He said technology would serve as an enabler, while partnerships with other sectors would help the insurer reach customers more efficiently and deliver faster and more agile services.
The strategy reflects a broader challenge facing Nigeria’s insurance industry after the recapitalisation exercise. Stronger capital positions alone will not expand the market unless insurers can convert financial capacity into products that customers understand, distribution channels they can access and claims services they can trust.
Akinboye said the industry’s next task should therefore be to move closer to customers, understand their needs and develop products around those needs.
“Now that we have raised money and have a new face, so to say, for the industry, what we need to do is to engage more with the customers, to understand their needs and to build insurance products and to serve them better,” he said.
He argued that Nigeria now has a stronger foundation for insurance-led economic development, pointing to the enabling regulatory environment and greater government understanding of insurance as an instrument for savings, investment and economic growth.
For the industry, however, the opportunity will depend on whether operators can work with regulators and other sectors of the economy to build trust and expand insurance coverage.
Akinboye said insurers must work cooperatively rather than destructively if insurance is to become a stronger engine of economic growth.
He also identified compulsory insurance as an important potential catalyst for market expansion, arguing that effective implementation could bring more Nigerians into the insurance system and create opportunities to sell additional products.
“If well implemented, it will act as a major push for all other insurance products,” he said.
He called on insurers to develop creative ways of making compulsory insurance work and deliver value to the public rather than treating it simply as a regulatory requirement.
The bigger opportunity, he said, is to build larger pools of insurance premiums that can support investment and economic activity.
“The bigger the pool, the bigger the potential of money to be used for investment,” Akinboye said.
