Uncategorized

Africa Oil & Power and TRM Risk Management Talk Mitigating Client Exposure in a post-COVID-19 Landscape

Three years ago, brothers James and Hugo Hill identified a growing demand for complex insurance products required by energy companies and other ‘Special Risk’ businesses in Africa, a continent historically underserved by international insurers located thousands of miles from the projects they were underwriting.

TRM Risk Management (TRM) (https://TRM.co.za) is a pan-African risk advisory business that specializes in advising energy clients and placing insurance policies for the largest and most complex risks on the continent. The Hills’ 25 years of combined insurance Broking & Underwriting experience in London, Singapore and South Africa brings a uniquely broad range of solutions to even the most complex of risks.

Since its inception in 2017, the company has specialized in advising on operational and energy construction risks for state-owned utilities, private power producers and independent E&P companies in over 15 African countries, with the energy sector comprising 70% of its business (the other 30% comes from other ‘special risk’ lines, including marine and aviation).

“TRM is an independent, client-first organization and we are simplifying the Insurance buying process for customers in Africa. Our values are aligned to our clients’ values and we use our deep-rooted knowledge of Africa and the international broking community, along with our own relationships with underwriters, to make sure our clients get the best possible access to the market. Our risk advisory model is tried and tested over the last three years, and this is why we have grown so quickly as an organization, as clients are viewing us as Africa’s premier risk advisor. The more we grow as an organization, the more we can leverage our portfolio for our customers,” says James Hill, Chief Operating Officer, speaking to a portfolio that now exceeds $100 million in insurance premiums.

“We have a growing portfolio of oil, gas and power business. From our experience of mitigating clients’ exposures across the entire energy value chain, we are able to identify the right broking partner for any given risk, to the benefit of our customers” adds Hugo Hill, Managing Director.

While TRM maintains its focus on West African markets – Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon, to name a few – the Central, East and Southern African regions have become a growing priority for the firm in the last 18 months.

TRM is a pan-African risk advisory business that specializes in advising energy clients and placing insurance policies for the largest and most complex risks on the continent

Earlier this year, emerging natural gas producer Renergen (www.Renergen.co.za) approached TRM to handle insurances for its Virginia gas project – the first project of its kind in South Africa to produce helium and liquefied natural gas locally for domestic use. While the existing domestic insurance market was not familiar with exposures typically generated by upstream oil and gas risk, TRM was able to provide bespoke Marine Cargo, Delay in Start-Up, Construction and Professional Indemnity insurance solutions, utilizing its prior experience handling insurances in African oil and gas-producing countries.

“TRM has a wealth of experience in providing energy construction insurance in Africa, as well as operational insurance,” says Nick Mitchell, Renergen’s Chief Operating Officer.

In the midst of an international brokering community that is seeing increasingly frequent mergers and acquisitions, TRM stands apart from the crowd with a fiercely independent, client-focused approach – analyzing broker performance across each business line and handpicking brokers for each specific risk.

“We have witnessed increased levels of M&A activity amongst the insurance brokers and we expect to see further consolidation. What has become apparent during periods of merger activity is that the brokers become more focused on the reshuffling of their own organizations as opposed to spending time concentrating on clients,” says James Hill. “This has worked out well for us as we remain totally independent, sitting firmly on the side of the client at all times, with our attention firmly fixed on the client’s needs.”

In Nigeria, leading independent Atlas Petroleum (https://Atlas-oranto.com) solicited the help of TRM to assess whether its current African Insurance program was fit for purpose given the company’s exposure. Atlas/Oranto is Nigeria’s largest privately held, Africa-focused exploration and production group. Atlas International and its sister company Oranto Petroleum have an extensive footprint across the African continent, holding 22 oil and gas licenses in 23 jurisdictions.

“TRM assisted in providing a more cost effective and bespoke energy package solution for our Nigerian client, which fully complied with Nigerian local content regulation – broader cover at lower cost,” said Sebastian Wagner, Chief Executive Officer of DMWA Resources.

Insurance commentators are suggesting that the COVID-19 impact will be a $100 billion event for the insurance industry,” says James Hill. “What we have, in effect, is the perfect storm, where the market was already bottoming out on rates and starting to enter a hardening state with rates increasing. COVID-19 has caused an acceleration and amplification of the rate corrections and we are seeing significant rate increases across the entire market. Some customers are being hit worse than others depending on in which sector the risk falls. For example, upstream rates are not as severe (yet), but the market may only require one more big loss before that market follows the downstream market, which is seeing significant rate increases of over 20%.”

“We, in conjunction with our broking partners, access insurers globally – whether it is Lloyd’s of London, the Middle East or Asia, as long as there is an appetite for African energy risks,” says Hugo Hill. “We believe now more than ever it is vital for any customer in Africa to ensure that they are accessing the global market to trigger as much competition amongst insurers as possible.”

“Wherever we can involve and support local African or regional insurers, we do,” says James Hill. “Sometimes it’s the international underwriters who will have larger capacities, but those underwriters on the ground in Africa have a better understanding of the risk – we blend local and international expertise to deliver optimum solutions for our clients.”

‘’Local content development has an important role to play in Africa, especially with regards to capacity building. The best example of this is Nigeria, where the Nigerians have fought hard to develop a strong and robust local insurance market, particularly in the oil and gas arena,” says Hugo Hill. “Insurance companies in-territory are closer to their clients than international insurers and often have a better understanding of the associated risks. It will be great if the new and emerging oil and gas markets in Africa can follow suit.”

While the global insurance market continues to correct, TRM remains optimistic in its long-term outlook for the African insurance sector – an industry closely linked with economic growth, operating on a continent home to the fastest-growing economies globally.

By Grace Goodrich

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

You may also like

Business Economy Society Software Technology

The critical role of data in debt recovery amid surge in consumer debt

post-image

 

 

As South Africans and their pockets are impacted by rising inflation, cost-of-living increases, and a spate of interest rate hikes over the past two years, consumer debt has surged at an alarming rate. More people are turning to credit facilities to keep up with daily expenses, with worrying knock-on effects for businesses and the entire South African economy.

 

With a renewed focus on debt recovery processes and procedures, businesses need to ensure they have the most reliable, up-to-date information available to assist with recovering outstanding monies. “As the cost of borrowing escalates, and the average South African consumer finds themselves allocating approximately 62% of their take-home pay towards servicing debt, the need for efficient, effective debt recovery strategies is a crucial consideration for any business extending credit,” explains Chantelle Frier, National Sales Manager of SearchWorks, South Africa’s largest and most innovative data aggregation platform that allows users to conduct…

Read More
Announcements Business Culture Events

NITDA Celebrates Exceptional Women Staff Members in Commemoration of International Women’s Day 2024

post-image

In honor of International Women’s Day 2024, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) proudly recognized the invaluable contributions of its female staff members during the Quarterly Staff General Meeting.

Led by the esteemed Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, the event served as a platform to commend and honor female staff members whose remarkable efforts have significantly contributed to the agency’s accomplishments. In a gesture of appreciation and acknowledgment, Director-General Kashifu Inuwa CCIE presented letters of commendation to these outstanding women, underscoring NITDA’s unwavering commitment to fostering inclusivity and empowering women within the agency.

The Quarterly Staff General Meeting not only celebrated the achievements of these exceptional women but also reaffirmed NITDA’s dedication to recognizing and nurturing talent across all gender identities. As an agency at the forefront of technological innovation, NITDA remains steadfast in its mission to create an inclusive and equitable workplace where every…

Read More
Business Events Fintech

PAFON 1.0: Experts Harp on Stricter Data Privacy Measures in Payments Ecosystem in AI Era

post-image

·      Tasks Payments System Operators on the Need for Consumer Education

 

The Chairman of the Committee of Chief Information Security Officers of Nigerian Financial Institutions (CCISONFI), Mr. Festus Amede, has identified Data Minimization Principles, User Consent and Control, as well as Compliance with Privacy Regulations as important elements in protecting privacy in payments.

 

Amede who was represented by an executive member of CCISONFI, Mr. Olusola Odediran (also, the Chief Information Security Officer) Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), spoke during his keynote presentation at the maiden edition of Payments Forum Nigeria (PAFON 1.0) held at Oriental Hotel, Lagos on Thursday.

 

His presentation themed, ‘Payments: Trust, Security and Privacy in the AI Era,’ explored the critical…

Read More
Business Economy

Nigeria Seeks Joint West Africa Regional Protection of Undersea Cables

post-image

 

 

Following recent undersea cable cuts that challenged connectivities in many countries in the West African region, Nigeria has called for a coordinated and multilateral approach by the region to protect shared telecommunications infrastructure, and diversify connectivity to ensure uninterruptible connections.

 

Executive Vice Chairman of the  Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, made the submission in a statement delivered at the 21st West Africa Telecommunications Regulatory Assembly (WATRA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) which held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from the 19th to 22nd March 2024.

 

Dr. Maida, whose message was delivered at the WATRA AGM by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs of the Commission, Nnenna Ukoha, stated that the recent submarine cable cuts that resulted in nationwide outages on multiple networks in 12 African countries has raised the urgent need for the subregion to establish a mechanism to protect itself from damage to submarine infrastructure and its attendant impact on the…

Read More
Business Opinion Technology Technology Trends

WHY HYUNDAI AND KIA HAVE ONE OF THE BEST FUEL ECONOMY

post-image

 

 

I watched one video yesterday when one of my brother Uncle IB did some review on Hyundai Sonata so i decided to throw more light on it.

Hyundai and Kia are so much underated in Nigeria and the reason is lack of information. Hyundai and Kia are the most fuel efficient vehicles but most people are not aware.
They use more advanced engine technology on and that’s why they use smaller engines to push out much power with less fuel.

They make use of technology like:
▪︎CVVT (Continously variable valve timing)
▪︎DPFI (Dual port fuel injection)
▪︎ITMS (Integrated Thermal Management System)
▪︎HTCS (High Thermal Conversion system)
▪︎FOMS (Friction optimized moving system)
▪︎ High Ignition Energy EGR
▪︎Smartstream Transmission.
▪︎Wet 8 – Speed DCT.

Hyundai and Kia make use of smartstream engines. Engines like GDi produce high power and good for high driving speed conditions while engines like MPi are smoother with less power…

Read More
Business

NDPC to Partner Ondo to Upskill Youths, Create Jobs in Data Protection

post-image

The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has expressed its readiness to work with the Ondo state government to promote a culture of Data Protection that would also help create employment opportunities for young people in the state.

The National Commissioner/CEO of NDPC, Dr Vincent Olatunji, revealed this when he received his excellency, the Ondo state Deputy Governor, Olayide Adelami, at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Friday.

Dr Olayide said the purpose of his visit was to explore possible areas of collaboration between NDPC and the state in a way that fosters development for the people of the State.

According to him, “our government is passionate about youth development and one of the ways to ensure our youths are gainfully employed is to equip them with the right skills, needed for 21st century workplace. In view of this, we have identified ICT as one key area to upskill our youths…

Read More
Business Economy Technology Technology Trends

8 Reasons MacBooks Are Better Than Other Laptops

post-image

MacBooks have been around for a while now, and in that time, they’ve cemented themselves as some of the most popular laptops available. They’re well-designed, easy to use, and come with some great features. But why are they so popular? And more importantly, why are they better than Windows-based laptops?

Here, we’ll explore several reasons why we think Apple laptops are better than the competition, touching on everything from durability to ease of purchase and more.

8. The Apple Ecosystem

The Apple ecosystem is made up of all the hardware and software that Apple designs and puts out. Almost all Apple devices, apps, and operating systems are a part of the ecosystem: iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Mac, iCloud, Apple Music, and so on.

So, when people talk about the Apple ecosystem, they’re actually referring to how well all these products work together. It’s the ecosystem that makes it possible…

Read More
Announcements Business

Bimbo Abioye, Fintrak Software’s Group Managing Director, Recognized Among “Top 50 Most Valuable Personalities in Nigeria’s Digital Economy”

post-image

 

 

Fintrak Software, Nigeria’s leading indigenous software development firm specializing in financial software, proudly announces the recognition of its Group Managing Director, Bimbo Abioye, at the prestigious “Top 50 Most Valuable Personalities in Nigeria’s Digital Economy” event. The ceremony, held at Providence Hotel in Ikeja GRA, Lagos State, celebrates Abioye’s outstanding contributions to the nation’s digital landscape.

Bimbo Abioye FCA,MBA,ACTI,CISA,CISM,CISSP,FICA,MNCS,AFCPN,SRMA - FinTrak Software Company LLC | LinkedIn
Bimbo Abioye , GMD Fintrak Software

Despite his absence due to commitments in an Eastern African country, Mr. Bimbo Abioye was represented by Ladi Ipaye, who graciously accepted the award on his behalf. The accolade underscores Abioye’s remarkable achievements and relentless dedication to advancing Nigeria’s digital economy.

Reflecting on Abioye’s impact, Ladi Ipaye remarked, “Bimbo Abioye has spearheaded Fintrak’s transformation into a powerhouse within the fintech ecosystem, elevating the firm from a modest consultancy…

Read More