Veritas Kapital is a little-known insurance company. I used to know about them as an associate company of Unity Bank, but then I stopped hearing about them as they never hit the radar.
Not a serious player, just hanging there and surviving from the pittance their parent bank dropped on their table. Riddled with an unimaginative board that stifled management, it was just a floating shipwreck that nobody cared about.
Then my sister, Dr. Adaobi Nwakuche, landed there. She was with Heirs Insurance after a very powerful insurance career that started as a Youth Corper at Standard Alliance.
From there, she moved to Dere Otubu’s Staco and eventually ended up with Tony Elumelu, who has been a long-time mentor.
Under Tony, she worked at the Heirs Insurance franchise, where she performed so powerfully that it was only a matter of time before she would be poached by more desperate platforms that didn’t have the soaring stability of Heirs Insurance.
When I heard of the move, I reached out. “Why Veritas?” I asked her. She smiled, “Edgar, the challenge is irresistible,” and if you know Ada very well, you will understand her thirst for risky challenges.
Imbued with drop-dead gorgeousness and the brains of a Harvard nerd, Ada comes with a drive that remains confounding to people.
She is passionate about sales, which has led her to build one of the most valuable Rolodex contacts in corporate Nigeria.
These she has brought to bear in the few months she has spent at Veritas. Let me show you a quick snapshot of her figures: profit moved by 1101% from N193m to N2.3b in 2023.
This monumental YOY growth of N2.14b has been said to have set a new ‘industry benchmark.’
Even her investment results soared by 163%, moving from N1.46b in 2022 to N3.84b in 2023. The insurance revenue, however, soared by a more reasonable 41%, growing from N5.05b in 2022 to N7.10b in 2023, an increase of N2.06b.
The group’s total assets increased from N17.2b in 2022 to N24.6b in 2023, with shareholders’ funds impacted and growing by an impressive 31% from N12.46b in 2022 to N16.3b in 2023.
It’s quite remarkable that these results started spiking with the entrance of Amazon into their system. Her vivacious approach to work, her clear understanding of the industry, and her never-say-die spirit are buoying her in her very first attempt at pushing the boat by herself.
Before Veritas, there was always a strong platform with one strong principal like Dere or Tony, which kind of obfuscated her achievements since they carried very huge reputations and reach.
But at Veritas, she is all on her own, and she has proven very clearly that she has come into her own and is now a bona fide leader in her own right.
She once told me about her love for insurance. As a beautiful young damsel fresh from the university, she rushed towards the then Standard Trust Bank to start a banking career but could not find space.
So she was told to mark time at the Standard Alliance branch across the road for a bit. She got there and noticed the 30% commission on transactions paid to marketers and jumped at it like a fish to water.
By the time the bank was ready for her, she had started building a thriving career in insurance while lining her pockets with the sweet smell of cash from the commissions she was being paid from profitable and legitimate transactions.
Today, Ada has etched herself very firmly on the insurance horizon while forcing herself into the room on the way to insurance immortality.
I do wish my sister well, even as I assure her of a front-row seat in her support as she continues to make history.
Congrats!
Duke of Shomolu