Plenary Session 1: Tom Veerman on Lessons Learned from IFRS 17 Implementations in Nigeria

The implementation of IFRS 17 is a major challenge for the insurance industry, fundamentally changing accounting and reporting practices. Some African regulators have adopted IFRS17 as a new regulatory accounting standard. African insurance companies have faced complex implementation challenges and some of them have missed the deadline for full implementation of the new IFRS 17 accounting standard set by their local regulator.

We have been involved in the implementation of IFRS17 at several Nigerian insurers and have developed a useful approach and used associated software for this purpose.

Our presentation will focus on IFRS 17 requirements and the lessons learned at the various Nigerian insurance companies. A short demonstration will be given of the developed approach by which the IFRS17 accounting standard has successfully been implemented within several Nigerian insurers.

The approach assumes (1) a detailed Actuarial Model that is used to determine the market based reserves and (2) an IFRS17 engine that is based on a subledger approach implemented as an add-on to the general ledger system. As a result of this, there is no need to enter in a complex project in fully rearranging the current ledger. This saves a lot of time and effort.

In addition, the insurance companies benefit from already developed IFRS17 (reporting) knowledge reflected in the IFRS17 engine. Availability of on-the-shelf IFRS17 disclosure engine results in a clear direction at early stage and immediate focus on challenges to be overcome, thus leading to an effective and efficient process.