The Nigerian insurance industry continued its progressive upward trend of market performance as at the end of 2023, recording a remarkable increase to close on N1.003 trillion by the end of the fourth quarter, representing about 27 % growth over the N790 billion recorded in 2022, according to BusinessDay.
Data released Tuesday by the Statistics Department of the Directorate of Research, Statistics & Publication of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the Non-Life business accounted for 61.3 per cent of all premiums written during the year, amounting to N615.1 billion, while the Life segment contributed 38.7 per cent, valued at N388.1billion.
In addition, the market achieved a retention of approximately 87.7% for Life business and about 54 % for nonlife during the same period, while the overall market retained an estimated 66.7 %.
Oil & Gas and Fire Insurance accounted for 27.3 % and 24.1 % of the market, amounting to N167.8 billion and 148.1 billion in total, as major growth drivers on the Nonlife segment.
The life insurance business recorded a total of about 95 per cent of net claims in the course of the year, while market average was around 71.4 per cent of N536.5 billion gross claims reported at the end of Q4 2023.
Data also showed that the market recorded total assets of about N2.67trillion and capitalization of N851billion in 2023.
In a direct reflection to the “no-premium no-cover” policy of the Commission, the outstanding premium continue to decline, posting a 1.6 per cent as outstanding of all the premiums generated in the market during the period.