By Bisi Bamishe
Persistent failure to submit its audited Financial statements for past seven years, lack of approved financial statements since 2019 and lack of required 2024 approved financial statement were some of the reasons why sone insurance companies’ names were missing on the list of recapitalised firms.
Recall that Nigeria Re, NICON Insurance, among others are facing risk of liquidation as a result of failure to meet minimum requirements for the recent recapitalisation exercise instituted by the Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA 2025) which commenced July 2025 and ended July 31, 2026.
The regulatory authority for insurance, the National Insurance Commission( NAICOM), had recently concluded the recapitalisation activities, issued new operating licenses first to 43 insurance and reinsurance firms it adjudged fit and later released names of additional seven insurance firms it said had submitted their recapitalisation documents with evidence of payment of all required fees before July 31 deadline.
The firms were said to have had their papers on the tables of appointed auditors for review before the deadline and the regulator gave the auditors additional 14 days to verify their books.
Just last week, the regulator released list of seven insurance companies in addition to the initial 43 firms it released bringing to total 50 insurance and reinsurance firms declared by the regulator as fit to operate in the system.
The commission had marked some non -compliant firms for liquidation including NICON Insurance Ltd and Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation.
Investigation from sources close to the regulator on why such firms like NICON Insurance Ltd, Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, Universal Insurance, African Alliance firms missed out in the recapitalisation exercise revealed that some of the left out firms had cases of arrears of non compliance with the stipulated rules guiding operators in the insurance sector.
However, it was gathered that a company like Universal Insurance, known to be doing well had, prior to the recapitalisation deadline, engaged in serious merger discussions with another firm and was too sure that the merger talks would scale through until the last minute when the merger partner suddenly found a foreign investor who invested heavily into its operations to the extent that the firm made the recapitalisation requirements on stand alone basis and automatically abandoned the merger talks with Universal Insurance.
It was gathered that, as at the time this happened, it was too late for Universal Insurance to start making fresh arrangement on how to scale through the recapitalisation hurdle before the dawn of the deadline.
Two of the non-recapitalised firms have been enmeshed in various regulatory infractions dating back to 2019 attempted recapitalisation which was inconclusive.
According to findings, one of them did not have audited financial statement since 2019. At the point of the recapitalisation exercise, the company did not have the required 2024 approved audited Financial statement, therefore, its financial information remained significantly outdated. This made determination of the company’s actual financial position impossible by either the regulator or any auditor.
This medium further learnt that the company consistently failed to submit required monthly recapitalisation progress reports within stipulated timelines and failed to meet several other regulatory obligations.
Recall that in July 2026, NICON claimed a capital injection of approximately N20 billion.
But when it was requested to submit updated minimum capital requirement computations, identify its investor, required to pay capital verification fee as well as provide evidence of transfer of reWe also learnt that instead of full compliance like other firms, NICON stated that compliance with the insurance statutory deposit obligation alone satisfied the requirements.
But according to the recapitalisation guidelines released by the regulator in September 2025, insurance statutory deposit is distinct from the recapitalisation escrow account, as both requirements serve different regulatory purposes and according to the guideline, transfer of recapitalisation proceeds into the escrow account was mandatory before verification.
Other findings show that having failed to comply with these requirements, the regulator concluded that NICON Insurance Ltd did not satisfy the requirements necessary for commencement of statutory capital verification.
Accordingly, no verification by any of the big four audit firms was carried out in respect of the company.
Nigeria Re’s case too is almost similar to that of NICON Insurance.
In July 2026, it was gathered that the corporation notified the regulator of capital injection of ₦30 billion. The Commission immediately requested updated minimum capital requirement computations, evidence supporting the capital source, verification fee payment and evidence of transfer of the recapitalisation proceeds into the designated CBN escrow account.
According to findings, although a few documents were submitted, the corporation failed to comply with the mandatory requirement to transfer the alleged capital injection into the CBN recapitalisation escrow account to enable verification as required by the recapitalisation guidelines .
Consequently, the regulator concluded that, its preconditions for verification were not met and classified the corporation as one of those not eligible for verification as none of the regulator’s big four audit firms conducted the statutory capital verification as such the commission was unable to admit its capital injection.
But stating its own part of the story in its open letter to the president published in some daily newspapers, the owner of both NICON and Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, Jimoh Ibrahim displayed Lotus Bank cheques of N30 billion payment which he said was for Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation and N20 billion cheque of the same bank which he said was for NICON Insurance .
He accused NAICOM, the regulator of unlawfully demanding for N500 million one percent shareholders’ funds and illegal transfer of N50 billion and payment of N180 million recapitalisation fee to the regulator.
