DETERMINED to emerge an international organisation, WAICA Reinsurance Corporation Plc (WAICA Re) intends to expand its operations across the entire African continent, Asia and the Middle East as soon as possible.
The Managing Director of WAICA Re, Abiola Ekundayo, who disclosed this during the company’s yearly general meeting in Accra, Ghana, informed that plans are being concluded to establish a contact office in Kenya next year to cater for East Africa as well as set up offices in the other regions.
According to him, “Our intention is to become fully international and move outside West Africa. Currently, our diaspora funds are growing faster than what we obtain from Nigeria and Ghana and other West African Countries.
“We are growing tremendously, and growing our capital base with investors coming not only from our member countries, but also from places such as East Africa. We are also expanding our presence in francophone African countries from the second quarter of this year”, he noted.
He emphasised that the quick turn-around time for processing businesses had earned the company an enviable credibility that had helped it to attract businesses beyond Africa, from the Middle East and a few from Asia.
Although the AGM to adopt the 2013 accounts and financial statement of the company was initially scheduled to take place last year, it was postponed due to the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, where WAICA Re is headquartered.
As the corporation’s articles of incorporation did not permit it to hold AGMs outside the jurisdiction of its host country, the clause was subsequently amended at an extraordinary general meeting which now allows holding the AGM in other member countries.
While the company grew its total assets from $6.33 million in 2011 to $56.06 million in 2013, the figure is expected to have increased to $65.85 million by the end of this year.
