SIC Managing Director fired

The Managing Director of SIC Insurance Company Limited, Doris Awo Nkani, has been sacked, the company has said.

The dismissal of Mrs. Nkani, who was on interdiction and had been advised by the Board of Directors to take part of her accumulated annual leave effective January 26, 2015, follows reports of corporate and financial mismanagement in SIC.

Mrs. Nkani has thus paid the price for overseeing two major scandals and embezzlement which have greatly dented the image and financial status of SIC, a publicly traded company on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

First is an allegation of misappropriation of funds that got the Deputy Managing Director, Finance and Administration, Musa Abdulai, interdicted; and the second is an issue relating to a credit guarantee bond transaction that has cost the company financial loss running into millions of cedis.

A statement issued by the company said Kwei Mensah Ashidam, Deputy Managing Director (Technical), has been asked to act as Managing Director.

The dismissal of Mrs. Nkani, the first woman MD of SIC, has paved the way for the company to initiate a suit against the embattled managing director, which when successful could deny the ex-MD any entitlement.

The board of SIC is understood to be considering taking legal action and pressing fraud charges against Mrs. Nkani for ignoring directives imploring her not to issue insurance guarantees for loans.

Currently, a credit guarantee product -- overseen and underwritten by Mrs. Nkani that has now gone bad -- has resulted in SIC being directed by a court to pay about GH?138million to Ivory Finance Company as the insured – ITAL -- defaulted in its payments to the creditor.

Mrs. Doris Nkani, a lawyer, Chartered Insurer and fellow of the Insurance Institute of Ghana (IIG), has held several top positions in the insurance industry. Prior to her appointment as Deputy Managing Director (Technical) at SIC Insurance she was the Managing Director of Phoenix Insurance Company Limited, where she helped to reposition the company.

She has also served in the past as head of the following departments at SIC Insurance: Underwriting; Claims; Legal; and Marketing. Mrs. Nkani was also the Tema Area Manager and had oversight responsibility of Tema, Koforidua, Aflao and the Ho branch offices.

She is the President of the Bureau of Guarantors of the Inter-State Road Transport (ISRT) Association of ECOWAS; a West African sub-regional association that focuses on deepening traffic flow along the interstate corridors of the ECOWAS region.

Mrs. Nkani is an Executive Council member of the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) and a member of the Governing Council of West Africa Insurance Association. She serves on the Management Board of SIC Life, Novotel and the Superannuation Management Committee of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.

She holds an LLB (Hons) from the University of Ghana, Legon, and a BL from the Ghana Law School. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Insurance, London, and the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana.