Mr. Obinna Ekezie, the Chairman of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc said the 2021 financial year was another success story for the company despite the persisting challenges in the operating environment.
Ekezie told shareholders at the 27th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos that both the top and bottom lines recorded growth as the insurer generated an all-time high Gross Premium Written of N10.5 billion. When compared with the N9.8 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2020, this represents a growth of 7.4%.
“The Profit Before Tax grew significantly by 26%, from N772.6m in 2020 to N971.7m in 2021, while Profit After Tax grew by 17%, from N678.0 million in 2020 to N790.6m in 2021. Your company also created additional value during the year by growing the Group’s total assets from N 14.3 billion in 2020 to N15.7 billion in 2021, a growth rate of approximately 10%. Also, despite the prevailing micro economic environment, Investment Income grew from N940 million to N1.2 billion in 2021.”
On the future outlook, Ekezie said:
“The realities of the effects of the pandemic have since dawned on all locally and internationally, principally affecting the way operations are conducted. Your company is in tune with the new normal in the work environment.
With the full opening of the global economic space to pre pandemic levels, we are poised to take advantage of our larger size to continually grow the numbers.
2023 is another year of elections and expected democratic change, with the attendant political risks and uncertainties. We remain hopeful that with our unfolding Group structure and attendant reinvigoration of operations by all member companies, our share of the various markets we operate in shall continue to grow. Ours is a quest to become one of the top players in the financial services sector. Our emergence as a one-stop-shop for the array of services we now offer is in line with this.”
Mr. Eddie Efekoha, Group Managing Director/CEO of CHI Plc said the company’s investments in technological tools to aid such transactions have been a top priority.
“A self-service portal is now live and with a visit to https://einsurance.chiplc.com customers and prospects alike can access some of our key classes of insurance including Motor (Third Party, Comprehensive, CHI Prime (Third Party with limited own damage cover) and Goods-In-Transit. Motor Claims registration and tracking can also be carried out on the portal.”
He also confirmed that arrangement s ar e in top gear for our transformation into a Holding Company structure. Upon approval by the regulators, this will enable us to formalise our diversified operations in other aspects of financial services thus putting us in good stead to optimise advantages derivable from Holdco structures. Benefits like additional income from cross-selling of our services to customers across the group would now be tapped vigorously.”
