A major legal and regulatory dispute has opened between the National Insurance Commission and NICON Insurance Limited after the regulator revoked the company’s operating license and appointed a Receiver and Provisional Liquidator.
NAICOM reportedly cancelled NICON’s Certificate of Registration, RIC-049, over alleged failure to meet minimum capital requirements under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025.
Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, SAN, was appointed to take control of the company’s assets, records, liabilities, and claims during the liquidation process.
In a public notice, the receiver directed policyholders, creditors, business partners, governments, and land registries to channel matters relating to NICON through his office and warned that transactions undertaken without his ratification might not be recognized.
NICON, however, rejected the regulatory action and disputed the recapitalization exercise on which it was based.
The insurer described the process as “fake and fraudulent,” an allegation by the company that has not been independently established.
NICON said it had referred the circumstances surrounding the recapitalization exercise to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Federal Ministry of Finance and insisted that it remained a going concern.
The company also said it had taken legal steps to challenge the action and cited a suit pending before the Federal High Court in Abuja, FHC/ABJ/CS/1670/2026.
NAICOM has maintained that the recapitalization program was designed to ensure insurers hold sufficient capital to absorb risks and meet obligations to policyholders.
The regulator recently said 48 insurance companies and two reinsurance companies had been verified as compliant with the new capital requirements.
Until the court resolves the dispute, the legal status and consequences of the regulator’s action remain contested between NAICOM, the appointed receiver and NICON.
