Abuja — Fin Insurance Company Limited, a subsidiary of Fin Bank Plc, in its 2008 financial year has recorded gross premium income of N875 million as against N513 million last year, showing an improvement of 71 percent.

Also the retained premium of the company rose by 110 percent from N377 million in 2007 to N793 million in 2008.

The new Chairman board of directors of the company Mrs. Carolyn Anyanwu told shareholders at the 27th annual general meeting of the company in Lagos that despite the challenging business climate, Fin Insurance profit after tax stood at N256 million as against N167 million recorded in 2007.

According to her, shareholders' fund also grew to N5.506 billion in 2008 from N3.398 billion in 2007. She attributed the successes of the company to policies and strategies introduced by the staff of the company.

Shareholders approved the 4 kobo per share dividend amounting to N120 million proposed by the board of directors.

During the year under review, she announced that Fin Insurance also embarked on long term expansion efforts that saw the company establishing six additional branches, upgrading of existing branches, recruitment of more technical staff and investing in IT infrastructure.

She said the company will tap more into the largely untapped Nigeria's insurance market by going composite before the end of first quarter of next year, adding that with its robust products offering it would become one of the five largest insurance firms in Nigeria by 2014.