The National Insurance Commission has said that the sacked directors of African Alliance Insurance will not be reappointed to the board of the company or any other board in the industry.

This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Insurance, Olusegun Omosehin, during a question-and-answer session at the annual seminar for insurance journalists held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

NAICOM sacked the board and management of African Alliance Insurance Company in October 2024 and, in their place, appointed an interim board and management tasked with managing the affairs of the company and, above all, ensuring the interests of policyholders, particularly annuitants, are safeguarded.

Addressing developments around the company as it nears one year of the interim board/management appointment, Omosehin said: “The entity used to be solvent, and some people ran it down. Let me tell you, when we are handing over that entity, every individual who had been on the board and was responsible for the insolvency will never be appointed on that board. Nobody who had been on that board and was responsible for the insolvency will be on that board or have the opportunity of being on any other board, for that matter. Those are clear guidelines, but of course, the owners of the business will remain the owners of the business.”

Omosehin added: “We’ve taken over their portfolio right now; we are completing the process of disposal of some of their assets because you have money locked up in assets. Those assets need to be disposed of. The money realised will then be used to match those portfolios. Once that is done, the critical ones will transfer to another entity. They can no longer manage an annuity portfolio. So, we transfer that portfolio to another entity that has the capacity to manage that portfolio. Whatever we derive, we will settle the outstanding claims, and we will hand the company back to the owners. But again, that means they have to meet our requirements. There are minimum capital requirements that have been set, and it’s simple. If they can’t meet it, then we cancel the licence. So, these are basic processes.”

The NAICOM boss asserted that the regulator would no longer tolerate a system where the public suffers from the actions of a few individuals.

“The Nigerian people will no longer be exposed to the whims and the individual greed of entrepreneurs, where policyholders’ money is taken to fill their pockets, they run away, and the company is allowed to die. But who suffers is the public. That money is not theirs, because the actual capital they injected into those entities is little; the bulk of the money you see is policyholders’ money. The government will not close its eyes and allow that to continue,” he declared.