Shareholders Seek Tax Relief To Drive Insurance Reform

The Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN) has urged the Federal Government to grant temporary tax reliefs to insurance companies to ease the smooth implementation of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025.
Its Chairman, Mr. Boniface Okezie, told NAN yesterday in Lagos thata operators needed financial breathing space to enable them meet the new capital requirements set out in the law.
NIIRA 2025, which was recently unveiled, mandates a new capital base of N10 billion for life insurers, N15 billion for non-life companies, N25 billion for composite firms, and N35 billion for reinsurance companies.
The Act also introduces compulsory insurance enforcement, digitisation of operations, stricter claims settlement timelines, a policy protection fund, and regulation of online insurance businesses.
Okezie said that while the reform was timely and necessary to reposition the industry, government support would determine whether companies survive the transition.
“The NIIRA 2025 entails recapitalisation. Government needs to support these companies by granting them tax exemptions for a while. Once they stabilise, they can resume tax payments. Without this, implementation will be difficult,” he said.
He noted that Nigeria’s tax reforms had been largely insensitive to the peculiar challenges of different industries and must now be designed with insurance growth in mind.
Okezie also called on government to increase patronage of local insurers instead of awarding contracts to foreign firms.
“This is the time government must sit up and make the sector contribute meaningfully to GDP.
“We cannot continue with one per cent penetration, which is abysmal. Look at the banking sector; insurance should be elevated to the same level of competitiveness,” he said.
The PSAN chairman also urged operators to win back investor confidence by prioritising dividend payments and strengthening corporate governance.