By Olusegun Elijah
Insurance stocks on the Nigerian bourse led other sectors’ players dominating the list of companies that missed disclosing their financial reports in the X Compliance report the NGX released recently.
Twelve insurers, representing 22.2 percent of the 54 violators, accounted for 32.9 percent of the sanctions the NGX imposed.
The sanctions, 73 in all, ranged from warning to suspension, and fines which added up to N457 million for companies across banking, energy, transportation, and other industries.
The report raised concerns about transparency in an industry whose penetration remains below 1 percent of the GDP despite its asset base growing more than 80 percent to N4.2 trillion, according to NAICOM.
Mutual Benefits Insurance got N53 million in fine for disclosing its 2023 audited financial statement over a year later; it got N11 million, too, for filing its 2024 AFS almost a year and half later, and N2.8 million for disclosing its 2025 Quarter 1 unaudited report four months later.
Its N67.4 million fine represented 22 percent of the total sanction (N305 million) on violators from the insurance industry, and 14.7 percent of all the fines.
International Energy Insurance Plc, with its N56 million penalty, tailed Mutual Benefits Insurance’s.
The energy insurer racked up N27.8 million for disclosing its 2025 Quarter 1 and 2 unaudited reports on September 30, and N28.2 million for disclosing its 2024 audited financial statement nine months later.
Universal Insurance Plc failed to disclose four of its reports, incurring N24.8 million in fine.
While Mutual Benefits Insurance remained the only insurer that also dabbled in unapproved insider dealing last month, others ran afoul (at least twice) of the rule governing financial statement disclosure.
Among them are Linkage Insurance Plc, Regency Insurance Plc, Prestige Assurance Plc, and others.
Many companies are already filing notices on NGX to inform the investing public of the delays and possible failure to meet the March deadline.
