Guardian

DETERMINED to strengthen  operations to all the African markets, WAICA Reinsurance Plc has concluded plans  to shop for additional  capital of $25 million.

The managing  director,  Abiola Ekundayo,  said the necessity to raise the capital base further was informed by the desire  of the regional reinsurance firm to bring its services to all parts of the continent.  Currently operating with about $33 million from her first capital raise in 2011.

Ekundayo who spoke with journalist  last week during the Africa Insurance Organization  (AIO) conference in Caira, Egypt stated that it was discussing with EDC Limited as financial advisers to use their wide network to attract investors from across the African market to invest in WAICA Re.

Precisely two years after establishment, regional reinsurer, the company  has broken even with the projection  to pay  first dollar dividend in 2014. The company’s 2012 financial accounts approved in March, indicate beyond all expectations,  positive results that put the company in a position to reward shareholders.

He said: “We want to avoid the initial mistake we made in our first offer, which concentrated mainly in Sierra Leone, with lessw emphasis  in Ghana and Nigeria, where there are heavy potential investors, this timd around, we are going to spread our market strategy to all the markets in the continent this time around.

According to Ekundayo, the organization has come to full operation with the  support  of cedents from the West African Region and beyond, having also enjoyed the goodwill of WAICA Poll as offshoot.

Though he said quite a lot of the WAICA Pool funds are still not accessible to WAICA Re because of  challenges of  documentation on signatories, the new company, according to him, has continued to meet its obligations  to the extent of claims settlement on WAICA Poll cedents.

He said, “Recently we paid $52,000 claims to Ghana Re from the account of WAICA Pool, which we will take back when part of the funds   locked up in Union Bank of UK Limited, Commercial Bank of Ghana and some in Nigeria are accessed.

WAICA Reinsurance plc, an organization belonging to insurance companies in the West African Sub-region, with head office in Sierra Leone, officially was commissioned in 2012 having been operating in skeleton form since  2011.

The firm with investors across the continent was set to address the capacity challenge faced by the regional market in its many years of insurance practice, where foreign counterparts had controlled larger share of the market.

Ekundayo stated that WAICA Re was established to help minimize the effects of the lack of reinsurance capacity within the West African insurance industry. “With the establishment of the headquarters of WAICA Re in Sierra Leone in August 2011, the aim and objectives of the corporation is to set up a world class reinsurance cooperation, which will not only capacitate staff in various companies in West Africa, but also set a good example of regional socio-economic integration.”