Sanlam Seals Joint Insurance Deal in Nigeria

May 21 - The Nigerian insurance market is set to welcome a powerful new player with the launch of a joint venture in July this year.

Sanlam Ltd of South Africa and First Bank joined forces, with the former taking a 35% equity stake in FBN Insurance Company.

Together the two will launch a service that will provide life and non life insurance services in the Nigerian market.

The local media announced that the Sanlam/First Bank group had obtained an operational license from the Nigerian National Insurance Commission for its life business, which will start working in July this year.

The non life insurance side is pending a license and will begin operations sometime next year.

Nigeria was excited about the entrance of First Bank into mainstream insurance and the Commissioner for Insurance said that it had taken three years to decide whether to provide the group with an operating license.

"We believe that giving First Bank an operating license would deepen the market because it is expected that its outlets spread in the nook and crannies of the country would be used to push insurance products to the larger populace," said the Commissioner for Insurance, Fola Daniel.

"The commission is eager to see the industry achieve market deepening and grow to our expected target," he added, "and that is why we are taking seriously the issue of projecting our Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI), brainchild of the commission which is also focusing on market penetration."