Composite insurance underwriter Lasaco Assurance has turned the corner on the N731.5 million half-year loss it logged in the first six months of last year, which heralded its first annual loss in thirteen years during the financial year 2025.
The insurer, in the last mile of a recapitalisation deadline in the Nigerian insurance industry that expires this month, recorded N384.9 million in the year to June, compared with a year ago, according to its latest corporate report published Friday.
Its return to profitability owed less to revenue growth than to cost-cutting. Insurance revenue, its core income source, retreated by 3.2 per cent from the half-year 2025 level to N16.3 billion.
That happened following a slide in the cash its general business insurance contract brings to the pool.
Lasaco Insurance cut back insurance service expenses by 17 per cent, and it also reduced net expenses from reinsurance contracts by 11.4 per cent; both were key factors that drove insurance service results to N3.1 billion from N1.1 billion a year ago.
Investment result was less impressive, dropping 13.4 per cent to N1.6 billion, owing to a decline in interest revenue calculated using the effective interest method.
The financial services company earned less in interest terms from fixed deposits and much less from bonds during the period.
It incurred a net foreign exchange loss of N67.9 million, compared with the N58.1 million gain recorded in the same period last year, hurting net investment results.
One other dark spot in the broadly strong result was a plunge in other operating income to N33.3 million from N246.1 million. Operating expenses, up by 9.2 per cent, rose to N4.2 billion from N3.8 billion.
Profit before tax stood at N436.2 million, compared to a pre-tax profit of N518.1 million one year prior, while post-tax profit came to N384.9 million, relative to a net loss of N731.5 million in the corresponding period of last year.
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Nigeria’s latest round of insurance industry recapitalisation, which concludes this month, requires life insurance businesses to scale up their minimum paid-up capital from N2 billion to N10 billion and non-life insurers from N3 billion to N15 billion.
Composite insurance firms have also been set a minimum threshold of N25 billion, up from N5 billion.
From its recently concluded rights issue, the underwriter raised N19.3 billion, which it said has passed capital verification with the National Insurance Commission and has received confirmation of admissibility from the market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
NGX Insurance Index, the equity index that tracks the performance of Nigeria’s most capitalised and liquid insurance stocks, has been up by 23.8 per cent since President Bola Tinubu signed the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act on 4th August 2025.
