The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has ruled out any extension of the deadline for the recapitalisation of insurance companies.
The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Olusegun Omosehin, represented by Dr Usman Jankara, NAICOM’s Deputy Commissioner, Technical, said at a seminar in late December 2025 that the deadline fixed for July 2026 was reasonable, doable and achievable by serious players in the industry, reported News Agency of Nigeria.
“The recapitalisation deadline will not be extended,” Mr Omosehin said, adding that this was amending the deadline would amount to a breach of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025, which gave impetus for the new capital requirements.
He said that NIIRA was another landmark legislation that had provided a modern regulatory framework to strengthen supervision, promote innovation, and enhance consumer protection. He added that NIIRA had also provided better consumer protection through stronger market control rules, clearer penalty statements and stiffer penalties for regulatory breaches.
Mr Omosehin also said the Commission was yet to verify that any insurance company had fully complied with the recapitalisation requirement, partly because their capital valuation had not been verified.
Represented by Deputy Commissioner for Insurance, Technical, Dr. Usman Jankara, the CFI said, legally, no firm could be adjudged to have met the new recapitalisation thresholds until its compliance claims had been duly assessed, as stipulated in NIIRA.
Providing an update on the recapitalisation exercise, Omosehin said, “Yes, calculations are ongoing. This is part of the improvement process and constitutes a real solvency framework.
“We have issued guidelines on the role of capital valuation. Companies are required to submit key reports on their recapitalisation plans. The key point is that insurance entities must submit capitalisation plans for evaluation.”
The new capital thresholds, which were introduced by the NIIRA 2025, significantly raised minimum capital requirements for different branches of insurance, setting NGN10bn ($7m) for Life, NGN15bn for Non-Life, NGN25bn for Composite, and NGN35bn for Reinsurance, alongside a Risk-Based Capital (RBC) framework.