The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has inaugurated the Sub Working Group (SWGs) of the Insurance Industry Financial Reporting Working Group (IIFRWG) for the purposes of adopting the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17 by insurers in the country.
The commission’s CEO and Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Sunday Thomas, while inaugurating the groups on Monday in Lagos, said that the SWGs were expected to provide guidance to the IIFRWG for the adoption of the IFRS 17 by operators in the insurance industry.
The industry regulator said the adoption of the IFRS 17 by licensed insurers would commence from January 2023, pointing out that the SWG is inaugurated to help facilitate the adoption of the global standard in line with the industry’s best practices.
The NAICOM boss further disclosed that the commission had issued a ‘roadmap’ on the adoption of the IFRS 17 by the nation’s insurance companies as far back as January 2020, stressing that “the activities and timelines in the roadmap are intended to set the tone and facilitate a coordinated process and action steps.
Specifically, he further explained that the roadmap was issued for general adoption by all insurance, reinsurance, Takaful and micro insurance companies in the country.
According to him, the SWGs were constituted to assist the IIFRWG in the achievement of its mandate and ensure seamless transition to the IFRS 17 and that the IIFRWG had identified three critical sub working groups, namely accounting, disclosure and reporting Sub -Working Groups all of which will assist on technical issues relating to accounting.
Thomas explained that the aim of constituting the groups was to ensure that the views of Nigerian stakeholders interested in insurance financial reporting issues are taking into consideration during discussions at the SWGs level.
He promised that the commission will continue to give its full support to the SWGs to fulfil their mandates set goals.
The IIFRWG, an initiative of the NAICOM, was inaugurated in March last year as an advisory and consultative team of experts for the purposes of assisting in the adoption of the IFRS 17 in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that in May 2017, the International Accounting Standard Board issued the IFRS 17 insurance contract, which would replace the present IFRS 4 on accounting for insurance contracts effective January 2023.
According to the Board, the objective of the issuance of the IFRS 17 insurance contract is to ensure that an insurer provided all relevant information that honestly represents the insurance contracts.
In addition, the information provided in the proposed standard will form the basis for users of financial statements to assess the effect that insurance contracts have on the entity’s financial position, financial performance and cash flows.
