Underwriting firm, Universal Insurance plc says it’s putting in place strategies that would enable it increase market share and become one of the top ten companies in the market. Part of the strategies the Company noted includes adoption of e-commerce in product distribution, branch expansion and improved relationship with insurance brokers.
Benedict Ujoatuonu, managing director/CEO of the Company who disclosed the plans during an interview said “we have a long term plan, let’s say, 10 years plan, for us to move from where we are to the level of being among the first 10 in the market and we are not just wishing it, we are strategically putting things together to achieve it”.
Ujoatuonu said one of the things the Company has done, which is already running, and some more are going to come on board is the e-commerce platform. “Some of our products are already going on that platform and a lot more are going to come on that platform. We want to take advantage of that because statistically, we know that about 93 million Nigerians are on Internet and that gives us opportunity to reach a huge market through that platform”.
“Then, in South East, there is no state we don’t have presence and at the moment, we are also making efforts to engage more hands to enable us do that physical penetration and also take advantage of our e-commerce.”
According to him, most of the Company’s products are currently on recharge cards. Some of them you can gain access to it through online, and these, we are going to hype and enable people have access to them and buy their insurance products at their convenience.
Reviewing the firm’s performance, he noted that when the new management took over the business in 2010, the company was making loss consistently. “In 2011, of course, there was loss, in 2012, we posted profit. In 2013, we posted profit. In 2012, we made a profit of about N197 million, in 2013, we made a profit of about N310 million, in 2014, we recorded N487 million profit. So, consistently, we have put the company on the path of profit”.
“We invested in shares on the capital market, which seriously affected us during the crash. As a result, we inherited over N2.5 billion general loss that went into the general reserve. But consistently, we have reduced that loss to about N1.2 billion in the general reserve. With what we are doing in the long term plan, our expectation is that, putting together all these efforts, we are going to leave over a period of five years, wipe off that loss and be able to give returns on investment to our shareholders in terms of dividend. That is an articulated plan, the MD said.
