Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Limited (CHI) has urged Nigeria’s insurance industry to move beyond the recapitalisation exercise and focus on deploying stronger capital bases to drive business growth, deepen market penetration and deliver greater value to policyholders.
The company made the call at the South-South Brokers’ Professional Evening, organised in conjunction with the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), South-South Committee, in Port Harcourt, with the theme, ‘Recapitalization: Aftermath and the Next Phase of Growth.’
The forum brought together insurers, brokers and other industry stakeholders to examine how the sector can translate the stronger capital base achieved through recapitalisation into sustainable growth.
Speaking at the event, Mary Adeyanju, managing director and chief executive officer of CHI, said the industry had reached a critical juncture where the focus must shift from meeting capital requirements to deploying capital effectively.
‘Recapitalization has changed the conversation in our industry. It has moved us beyond the question of survival to a more important question: what are we going to do with the stronger industry we have built?’ Adeyanju said.
‘At Consolidated Hallmark, our answer is very clear. We intend to grow, innovate and create greater value for our customers. Importantly, we intend to create even greater value for our broker partners.’
Adeyanju said professional brokers remained central to CHI’s business, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the company’s business. She therefore called for stronger insurer-broker partnerships as the industry enters its next phase of development.
According to her, recapitalisation will have limited impact if stronger balance sheets do not translate into better customer experience, faster claims settlement, wider distribution and increased insurance adoption.
Adeyanju said CHI had maintained a strong financial position, with shareholders’ funds standing at N61 billion as of July 2026 and total assets at N91.9 billion.
She said insurance revenue stood at N28.4 billion at the end of July and had subsequently risen to N33.6 billion. At the end of the second quarter, profit before tax stood at N27.9 billion, while profit after tax was N27.4 billion.
The insurer had also paid N9.3 billion in claims from January to date, while its surplus of assets over liabilities stood at N47.8 billion and its solvency margin at N35.6 billion.
Adeyanju said the figures were not merely indicators of financial strength but represented the capacity to invest in technology, expand distribution, improve service delivery and build greater confidence in insurance.
‘Recapitalisation must translate into better service, faster claims settlement, deeper market penetration, stronger broker partnerships, digital innovation and greater public confidence in insurance,’ she said.
Technology, she added, would be a major driver of CHI’s growth strategy, with the company investing in digital solutions designed to make insurance faster, simpler and more accessible.
The initiatives include a free API-enabled Marine Insurance Portal for seamless certificate generation, while Curacel is being used to support faster motor inspections and claims processing.
CHI is also preparing to deploy TrustFort, an enterprise platform aimed at improving operational efficiency, while its website is being redesigned to provide customers with a seamless digital experience from policy purchase through claims.
Adeyanju said the investments reflected the need for insurers to move away from traditional processes and embrace digital platforms that can improve efficiency and make insurance more accessible to consumers.
She stressed that recapitalisation should not be viewed as the conclusion of a regulatory exercise but as the foundation for a more ambitious phase of industry growth.
The growth strategy also extends to CHI Life Assurance, where the company is targeting the retail market through digital distribution, product development and partnerships.
Patience Ugboajah, executive director, CHI Life Assurance, who represented the company’s managing director, Tope Ilesanmi, said the business was positioning itself to expand its retail footprint.
‘Our focus in the group is to do retail,’ Ugboajah said, noting that CHI Life obtained its licence last year and officially launched in October.
She said the company had secured approval for a number of retail products and was working with brokers to strengthen their retail capabilities, with Rent Secure among the products being positioned for the market.
The strategy comes as insurers increasingly look towards Nigeria’s largely underserved retail market for new growth opportunities, particularly through digital channels and broader distribution partnerships.
The professional evening also featured a presentation on the Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIRA) by Awele A. Ayetuoma, immediate past chairman of the NCRIB South-South Committee.
Ayetuoma said the latest recapitalisation exercise was different from previous exercises because it was backed by legislation and placed greater emphasis on policyholder protection.
‘This particular recapitalization exercise is different from the previous ones because it is backed by law,’ she said.
She also highlighted provisions aimed at strengthening policyholder protection, including the requirement for underwriters to contribute 0.25 percent of their net premium to the Insurance Policy Protection Fund to provide support where an insurer becomes insolvent and unable to meet its claims obligations.
The focus on policyholder protection comes as the industry seeks to rebuild public confidence and demonstrate that stronger insurance companies can provide greater security for customers.
The discussions in Port Harcourt underscored the central challenge confronting Nigeria’s insurance industry after recapitalisation: capital has been raised, but the real test will be whether insurers can convert that capital into sustainable growth, wider coverage, stronger consumer protection and a more relevant insurance market.
For CHI, that next phase will be driven by a combination of stronger broker partnerships, digital innovation, retail expansion and improved service delivery as the industry moves from the question of capital adequacy to the harder task of creating lasting value for customers and shareholders.