Ebere Nwoji
Persistent failure to submit its audited financial statements for the past seven years, a lack of approved financial statements since 2019, among others, were some of the reasons NICON Insurance Limited did not make the list of companies that met the minimum requirement for insurance sector recapitalisation, TaHISDAY has learnt.
The exercise recently concluded by National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) showed that the company with its sister firm, Nigerian Reinsurance Corporation, were among some non-recapitalised insurance firms currently facing risk of liquidation. The exercise commenced July 2025 and ended July 31, 2026.
After the exercise, NAICOM issued new operating licenses first to 43 insurance and reinsurance firms it adjudged fit, and later released names of additional seven insurance firms it said had submitted their recapitalisation documents with evidence of payment of all required fees before the July 31 deadline.
The firms were said to have had their papers on the tables of appointed auditors for review before the deadline, before the regulator gave the auditors additional 14 days to verify their books.
The commission had marked some non-compliant firms for liquidation, including NICON Insurance and Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation.
THISDAY’s checks revealed that some of the firms left out had cases of arrears of non-compliance with the stipulated rules guiding operators in the insurance sector.
However it was gathered that a company like Universal Insurance, which was doing relatively well, prior to the recapitalisation deadline, engaged in serious merger discussions with another firm and was too sure that the merger talks would scale through until the last minute when the merger partner suddenly found a foreign investor.
The foreign firm, according to findings, invested heavily in its operations, enabling the firm to make the recapitalisation requirements on a stand-alone basis and automatically abandoning the merger talks with Universal Insurance. It was gathered that at the time this happened, it was too late for Universal Insurance to start making fresh arrangements on how to scale through the recapitalisation hurdle before the deadline.
For NICON Insurance and Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, THISDAY checks showed that the companies had been enmeshed in various alleged regulatory infractions dating back to 2019.
NICON Insurance, it was learnt, had not had audited financial statements since 2019 and at the point of the recapitalisation exercise, the company did not have the required 2024 approved audited financial statement, with its financial information remaining significantly outdated.
That made determination of the company’s actual financial position impossible by either the regulator or any auditor, THISDAY gathered.
THISDAY further learnt that the company consistently failed to submit required monthly recapitalisation progress reports within stipulated timelines and failed to meet several other regulatory obligations.
It was also gathered that in July 2026, NICON claimed a capital injection of approximately N20 billion. However, when it was requested to submit updated minimum capital requirement computations, identify its investor, pay capital verification fee, as well as provide evidence of transfer of recapitalisation proceeds into the dedicated CBN escrow account, it declined to comply with the requirement to move the claimed capital into the recapitalisation escrow account.
THISDAY learnt that instead of full compliance, like other firms, NICON stated that compliance with the insurance statutory deposit obligation alone satisfied the requirements.
But according to the recapitalisation guidelines released by the regulator in September 2025, insurance statutory deposit is distinct from the recapitalisation escrow account, as both requirements serve different regulatory purposes.
In line with the guidelines, transfer of recapitalisation proceeds into the escrow account was mandatory before verification.
Having failed to comply with the requirements, the regulator was said to have concluded that NICON did not satisfy the conditions necessary for commencement of statutory capital verification. Accordingly, no verification by any of the big four audit firms was carried out in respect of the company.
For Nigeria Reinsurance corporation, it was gathered that at the initial stage, the company started complying by submitting a revised recapitalisation plan, but committed some infractions. These included failure to comply with the provisions of the recapitalisation guidelines due to absence of appropriate board resolution, failure to provide capital status as of December 31, 2024 and June 30, 2025, failure to indicate statutory deposit shortfalls and submission of an unsigned and illogical recapitalisation plan.
Other infractions said to have been committed by the company included limited progress, despite regulatory engagement.
It was, however, gathered that following extensive engagement by the commission, the company continued to submit progress reports. But regulatory review established that no meaningful progress was achieved.
In July 2026, it was learnt that the company notified the regulator of capital injection of N30 billion. The commission immediately requested updated minimum capital requirement computations, evidence supporting the capital source, verification fee payment, and evidence of transfer of the recapitalisation proceeds into the designated CBN escrow account.
Although a few documents were submitted, the corporation failed to comply with the mandatory requirement to transfer the alleged capital injection into the CBN recapitalisation escrow account to enable verification as required by the recapitalisation guidelines, a source said.
Consequently, the regulator concluded that its preconditions for verification were not met and classified the corporation as one of those not eligible for verification as none of the regulator’s big four audit firms conducted the statutory capital verification.
But stating its own part of the story in its open letter to the president published in some daily newspapers, the owner of both NICON and Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, Jimoh Ibrahim, displayed Lotus Bank cheques of N30 billion payment, which he said was for Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation and N20 billion cheque of the same bank which he said was for NICON Insurance.
He accused NAICOM, the regulator, of unlawfully demanding for N500 million, one per cent shareholders’ funds and illegal transfer of N50 billion and payment of N180 million recapitalisation fee to the regulator.