By Olusegun Elijah
WorldStage– Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, a member of the Main Board of the Nigeria Exchange Group (NGX), paid N71.2 million in fine for contraventions, but splits the disclosure to dull its impact on its last year’s financial statement.
The insurer disclosed paying the second instalment of the fine in its Quarter 5 audited financial statement (AFS) filed May, following the first declaration in the unaudited financial statement (UFS) for 2025.
According to the April NGX compliance report, regulators slammed three fines on Mutual Benefits when the insurer filed its 2023 AFS and 2024 UFS in February and July last year.
In the 2025 UFS, which it filed in January, Mutual Benefits stated it paid N62.5 million for the late filing of the 2023 and the 2024 documents.
Its Quarter 5 AFS filed in May also disclosed it paid N6.9 million to the NGX, and N1.9 million to the Security and Exchange Commission—for default filing of the 2024 AFS.
Companies entering regulatory penalties this way create an impression of recovery in their incomes with the reduction in expenses in the quarter that follows.
Mutual Benefits noted in its AFS expenses other than insurance and investment-related expenses are under “other expenses”.
“Other expenses are accounted for on accrual basis and recognized in the statement of profit or loss upon utilization of the service or at the date of origination.”
While the time of recognition remains undisclosed, the other expenses fell 32.6 percent from N4.3 billion in 2024 to N2.9 billion last year.
In some reports in March , the insurer said, without a specific date, it had paid a discounted fine of N53.6 million.
The amount was the highest of the three penalties NGX fined the company for filing the 2023 statement on 11 February last year. Others are N11 million for the 2024 filing and N3.8 million for the 2025 UFS, both filed last July.
