M&G Insurance Brokers chalk up 50

Stephen Kwarteng Yeboah

Marine & General Brokers Company Limited, fondly called M&G Insurance Brokers, has chalked up 50 years of operations.

Stephen Kwarteng Yeboah, Managing Director of the company, speaking to B&FT said the company was established by the late Nana Awuah-Darko Ampem I (known in private life as Daniel Quashie Awuah Darko) and some friends way back in 1969, with just GH¢0.06.

He further said Nana worked with some organisations while at London: including Pearl Assurance Company Limited in 1958, and Messrs. Cuthbert Health and Company Limited Insurance Brokers at Lloyds of London in 1960.

His experience at Lloyds, where he made history as the first Ghanaian Lloyds Broker, gave birth to the vision of later establishing Marine & General Brokers Company Limited in Ghana.

According to the Managing Director, Nana returned to Ghana in 1963; and after turning down an appointment with Royal Exchange Assurance, joined the State Shipping Corporation (Black Star Line), as Insurance and Claims Manager.

However, in 1969 he resigned from Black Star Line to form the first insurance brokerage company in Ghana - Marine & General Brokers Co. Ltd., with the assistance of friends he met while in London; including Chief Akin-George, a Nigerian, and Mr. Roland Kenneth Brown, a Briton with whom he enjoyed a life-long friendship and partnership.

Marine & General Brokers handled the businesses of key institutions including the Bank of Ghana, National Savings Bank, and Black Star Line. Being the only insurance broking house in the country, Marine & General Brokers grew in leaps and bounds, much to the chagrin of the establishment.

Unfortunately, in 1972 a law was passed that made it obligatory for all government institutions to deal directly with the State Insurance Company (now SIC Insurance Company Limited) and not through a broker: even if a broker was involved, commission was not to be paid to that broker. To make matters worse, SIC management decided to protect its agency-force through a policy that abolished payment of commission to brokers - even on non-government business that the broker placed with the company. This anti-broker environment dealt a crippling blow to the only broker in existence, and the company faced imminent financial extinction.

These notwithstanding, M&G fought through those legal hinderances to develop a special niche to provide a service. He said past-CEO’s including Mr. A.E.B Danquah and Oduro Kwarteng ensured that the company stayed afloat.

In 1986, Mr. Ato Acquah Midley took over the management from Mr. Oduro Kwarteng as Managing Director. He worked with the company for seventeen years and left in 2003.

In 2003, Directors engaged the services of Mr. Samuel Asante-Appiagyei (now Nana Appiagyei Dankawoso) as Managing Director. He worked closely with Mr. E. Akumfi-Agyemang – acknowledged as the Board Chairman who revived the company.

He told B&FT that Nana Appiagyei Dankawoso, who is now a key shareholder and Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, brought fresh blood into the company. He embarked on vigorous reengineering and diversified the company’s brokerage portfolio with support from the board. He doubled the company’s turnover in just two years after assumption of the MD position.

Today, Marine & General is still a household name in the insurance fraternity, and is ranked among the top20 in terms of brokerage income out of over 80 broking firms.

Mr. Kwarteng Yeboah revealed that M&G in September 2018 formally joined forces with a new pan-African Broking Network - OLEA Insurance Solutions - to provide state of the art international broking services to their cherished clients.

OLEA Insurance Network has 13 subsidiaries in Africa and over 30 partners across the continent. He also noted the company will soon be rolling out an information technology tool that will provide access for clients to view their insurance transactions, file claims, and manage their vehicle fleet online using an extranet. This is said to be unique in the market and the sub-region.

He expressed his gratitude to the company’s promoters - their cherished clients, 95% of whom keep faith in the company by retaining it as their broker; the staff; various Insurance companies they work with, and friends in the Insurance Broking fraternity.

He is inviting you, the reader, to come and taste their tried and tested 50-year experience in insurance broking, as well as new IT tools which have been praised by their multinational and local clients.