Reason has emerged why some insurance companies are finding it difficult to access their new capital of about N300 billion.
The funds which are domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)were raised under the just concluded recapitalisation programme.
Access to the is being affected by pending verifications for illicit funds inflows, following the CBN’s imposition of stricter capital verification regulations.
It is further learnt that while the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has given approval for the apex bank to release the funds to the insurers, the affected firms are painstakingly going through the processes.
During a virtual press briefing on the outcome of the Insurers Committee meeting, Chairman of Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) Mrs. Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, provided light where the situation is currently so.
She said that the insurance sector regulator has done its part while operators are currently working on the CBN criteria to access the funds on or before the end of this month.
The insurers said they had planned to deploy the new capital in the third quarter of this year to boost their financial performance in 2026 while rewarding their investors with good returns in dividend for their support in the recapitalisation programme.
READ ALSO: Recapitalisation Deadline: Insurance Firms Escape NIA’s Hammer
READ ALSO: National Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025 (NIIRA 2025)
Recall that the 24 insurance companies had cumulatively raised N300 billion during the exercise, added to over N700 billion existing capital, taking the total industry capital to N1.079 trillion, post recapitalisation.
The Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA), 2025, had stipulated that the underwriting firms and reinsurers who participated in the recapitalisation exercise that ended on July 31st, 2026 must keep their recapitalised funds in an escrow account with CBN.
Of the 50 firms that scaled through the recapitalisation hurdle, 24 of them raised fresh capital while 26 of them had earlier surpassed the minimum capital benchmark.
NIIRA had mandated life underwriters to recapitalise from N2billion to N10billion, non-life from N3billion to N15billion while reinsurers were required to upgrade from N10billion to N35billion.
The Commissioner for Insurance/CEO, NAICOM, Mr. Olusegun Omosehin, had earlier disclosed that the capital in the market has now risen to N1.079trillion, up from about N700billion before the exercise.
According to him, NAICOM now wants to allow operators access the recapitalisation funds, he promised that the regulator would monitor the operators to ensure that the funds fulfill its purpose and not mismanaged or divested into something else.
Vanguard
