Insurance brokers role as the major conveyor of risk for underwriters, is recognised by Linkage Assurance Plc as the causeway for its continuous growth and expansion in 2021 and beyond.
Daniel Braie Managing Director/CEO at Linkage Assurance Plc, sets the brokers primary role in insurance company’s growth trajectory at the business meeting of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Lagos Area Council(LAC) it hosted in Lagos, and said it behoves on Linkage to match this with the streaming of efficient services and prompt claims payment.
Scaling up brokers Braie said: “Linkage Assurance Plc recognises the pivotal role of the broker’s community in the growth of insurance business and that is why we decided that apart from hosting the national body, we would go a step further to host the various Area Councils across the country.
“So far, we have done this in Abuja, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and now Lagos. If not for the Covid-19 pandemic that broke out last year which affected businesses all over the word including Nigeria, we would have covered more states.”
Assuring brokers of adequate risks protection measures and claims cheque when protected risks happen, Linkage helmsman said the company takes its reinsurance treaties as strategic as its relationship with insurance brokers. “We have a robust reinsurance in place. For year 2021, our fire treaty is about the largest in the market and we settle our claims promptly.” He also said it had the largest aviation treaty last year which has made it possible to pay for the Opebi Ikeja helicopter crash last year and prepared to pay the dollars portion of $300,000.00. This he stated, resonates with the promises of the firm’s vision and mission statements.
Speaking on the company’s performance, he announced the unaudited result for the gross written premium of year 2020, grew by 28 percent from N6.5 bn in 2019 to N8.3 bn. The profit before tax of N2.5 bn was recorded and N2.4 bn was paid as claims.
He was also upbeat on the recapitalisation, “we achieved the first phase of our recapitalisation of N5 bn even before the deadline of December 2020 set by NAICOM from internal funds. We are all aware that there is a court injunction in force regarding the capitalisation, but we are committed to concluding the second phase on or before this first quarter 2021.”