Sanlam Group to increase investment in FBN

Sanlam Group, South African partners and major shareholder in Nigeria’s FBN Life Assurance Company Limited, is excited about the progress in the Nigerian company, which has broken even two years and three months after its establishment.
Sanlam said the FBN Life history is record breaking, as it takes majority of insurance companies five years or more to break even and record profit.
This, according to the Sanlam Group, has earned the Nigerian company its “Rising Star trophy” after emerging tops amongst its investments across other countries, including India, Uganda and East Africa.
Annually, Sanlam Group holds what it describes as the Nations Cup for its investment subsidiaries across the continent, usually in three classes – Premier, Major and Rising Star, where the rising star is for upcoming companies.
Heinie Werth, Chief Executive Officer, Sanlam Emerging Markets, who was in Nigeria over the weekend to present the trophy to the management of FBN Life, said beyond profitability, emphasis for winning the trophy are on sustainable business practice, new developed opportunities, future prospect.
Werth said: “We are interested in how the management has conducted the business and its sustainability going forward.”
Werth, joined by Margaret Dawes, executive director, Sanlam Emerging Market, said the Nigerian market holds a lot of growth potential with quality credentials of growing GDP.
“South African market has an insurance penetration of 10-11 per cent, whereas Nigeria is less than two per cent.
“So we see huge untapped market in the most populous country in Africa.”
Val Ojumah, the Managing Director and CEO of FBN Life, who expressed excitement about the recognition, said: “This is about the best time in my whole career life.
“The award is in recognition of our effort and also a challenge to achieve greater result.”
Ojumah said the company would even record more remarkable achievements when it becomes a composite underwriting firm, expressing confidence that the transition would happen before the end of 2013.
“This would present us with the opportunity to maximize our potential in the industry as a world class insurance company,” he added.
Making projection on the future of the company, Werth stated that in the next five years, FBN Life would become the number one insurance company in Nigeria, given the unique qualities of FBN Holdings Plc and Sanlam Group, which have helped to build trust for the insurance company.
According to him, Sanlam would continue to give its support with new investments, exposure to varieties of products and result oriented strategies.