Leadway Assurance gets GCR’s AA national scale rating upgrade on financial strength
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Leadway Assurance Company Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading insurance service companies, has seen its rating upgraded to AA national scale financial strength (NG) from AA- (NG) by GCR Ratings, a licensed rating agency in several markets. The rating is the second-highest financial credit rating.
This rating, published in the GCR’s October 2021 Report, indicates that Leadway Assurance’s superior capacity to meet financial commitments and obligations in its insurance and investments businesses, as well as an indication of the company’s stable and consistently growing outlook, underpins Leadway’s dominance of the industry’s gross written premium (GWP), with an estimated market share of 9.1 percent and a relative market share of about 5.4x as recorded in its FY 2020.
According to the rating agency, “Leadway Assurance’s national scale financial strength rating is a reflection of its strong financial profile, strong brand franchise, long track record of over five decades, well-entrenched relationships with brokers, and sustained penetration into the retail segment.”
Tunde Hassan-Odukale, managing director and chief executive officer, Leadway Assurance, in his comments on the milestone, said, “The report further underpins Leadway’s financial strength, enabling us to deliver on our obligations to customers promptly. We are pleased that the agency also recognised our industry claims-paying records in the last six consecutive years, with our highest claims paid ever recorded at N43.5 billion in 2020; despite the evident and challenging global socio-economic realities on individuals, households, and businesses in 2020 precipitated by coronavirus pandemic and other adverse economic indices.
“The robustness of the company’s balance sheet, which has seen us grow our total asset base by 32 percent from N396 billion in 2019 to N523 billion in 2020, was hinged on a strong return on our investment portfolios. With a board of reputable professionals whose strategic actions are anchored on strong corporate governance, our core values and global best practices, there is an assurance of delivering sustainable performance and results,” he said.
Odukale further stated that as the company continues in this new decade, it reaffirms its mission to deliver world-class insurance services to individuals and corporates in Africa.
“With support from digital transformation, robust risk management tools, innovative solutions and superior financials, our existing and prospective stakeholders can rest assured that we will continually fulfil our quest of ‘insuring the happiness’ of our publics,” Hassan-Odukale assured.
Also, the credit rating agency projected that Leadway Assurance will continue to defend its competitive position despite the increasing competitive dynamics.
“We expect the insurer’s retail growth strategy to gradually improve premium diversification and earnings capacity, and we also anticipate persistent internal capital generation to support capital growth,” GCR noted in its report.