Nigeria’s National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has cancelled the operating licence of Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, a company owned by billionaire businessman and politician Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, after it failed to satisfy the statutory Minimum Capital Requirement (MCR). In a notice issued on Thursday, the regulator instructed the public to stop conducting business with the reinsurer. NAICOM also named Senior Advocate of Nigeria Dr Muiz Banire as Receiver/Provisional Liquidator. Banire said members of the public, banks and other Nigerian financial institutions must not execute transactions based on instructions from any party other than those issued by him in that capacity. NICON Insurance Limited, another Ibrahim-owned company, was also absent from the list of 43 insurers that recently fulfilled NAICOM’s recapitalisation conditions. Both Nigeria Reinsurance and NICON have gone to court to contest the regulator’s licence action, court filings show. The move is among the most consequential disruptions in Nigeria’s insurance market since NAICOM began applying the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) on July 31, 2026.
