Ramallah – The National Insurance Company (NIC) held its annual ordinary meeting of the General Assembly, attended by company shareholders, board members, executive management, a representative from the Palestinian Capital Market Authority, a representative from the Palestine Stock Exchange, a representative from the Companies Monitor at the Ministry of National Economy, and the external auditors, Price Waterhouse Coopers Palestine, as well as the legal advisor to the company, Shhadat Law Firm. The meeting took place at the main headquarters of the National Insurance Company in Al-Bireh.

At the beginning of the meeting, the attendees were welcomed, and after ensuring the legal quorum, all the agenda items were discussed, adopted, and appropriate decisions were made. This included approving the recommendation of the Board of Directors regarding the distribution of dividends to shareholders at a rate of 12.5%, effective from 10/04/2023.

During the meeting, Mr. Aziz Abduljawad, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, mentioned that the company incurred losses from its insurance operations in 2021, amounting to nearly one million US dollars, marking the first time since its establishment. The Board of Directors and the executive management focused their efforts in 2022 on studying and analyzing the reasons for these losses to develop necessary policies and procedures to restore profitability in these operations.

Mr. Abduljawad added that the company has applied the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9 for three years, avoiding all necessary provisions. Currently, the company is working on implementing the IFRS 17 accounting standard in its financial statements for 2023, following the instructions of the Palestinian Capital Market Authority. He assured the shareholders that the company currently has accumulated distributable profits to cover these commitments, regardless of their value.

On the other hand, Mr. Bashar Tawfiq Hussein, the General Manager of the National Insurance Company, stated that 2022 was a challenging year filled with economic inflation and the continued impact of the destructive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world. Despite these challenges, the company continued to follow a risk management policy to mitigate the deterioration of insurance results. The focus for this year includes technological development, working on increasing growth through the digital transformation project, and introducing new products to serve the insurance sector and policyholders in their various needs.