By our staff reporter

Bunna Insurance reports that, for the first time, its premiums have surpassed half a billion birr, coming in at over 900 million birr.

According to Bunna’s annual report, the company’s gross written premium (GWP) for general insurance business in the 2022/2023 financial year was 880 million birr, which increased by 67 percent over the year’s target.

The company’s goal for the year is to register 527 million birr in GWP. The general insurance GWP was 469 million birr a year earlier, which is 88% less than what was reported for the year. The company has written 22.5 million birr in the life insurance business, which is 75.5 percent more than the goal.

The company’s gross written premium for both life and non-life insurance businesses, as of June 30, was close to 903 million.

Throughout the year, there were 189 million birr in pending claims and 295.4 million birr in claims that were paid. Claims paid in the year were 30 percent more than the projected 226 million birr, while the number of pending claims also increased by around 67 percent over the target.

The actual revenue for the year, which was 81.6 million birr, was 10 percent less than anticipated. The cause for the inferior income performance in comparison to the projected is attributed to high claim payment and pending claims.

Although the income has somewhat decreased, the company’s profit before tax has increased.

The reported showed that 52 million birr came from the general insurance business, accounting for 59.4 million of the earnings for the year under review. The profit, according to the annual report, increased by about 32 percent over the 45 million birr recorded in the 2021/22 fiscal year, but decreased by 14.4 percent when compared to the target set for the 2022/2023 fiscal year.

The company’s asset for the year has increased by 91.6 percent over the previous year, surpassing two billion birr. In terms of investments, the insurer owns shares in several companies valued at 224 million birr. The insurance company investment has reached 545 million birr in total. According to the report its capital has increased to 301.5 million birr.

The reporting year’s challenges include the worldwide environment, including the Russia-Ukraine crisis, rising auto-parts and maintenance prices, stagnating trade, and internal unrest.