"We Spent Years Preparing": Niyi Onifade Explains Strategy Behind Heirs Life Assurance’s Rapid Rise

When Heirs Life Assurance launched in 2021, it entered a Nigerian insurance industry often criticised for low pen*tration, weak public trust and limited innovation. Five years later, the company has emerged as one of the continent’s fastest-growing businesses, earning recognition from the Financial Times and establishing itself as a disruptive force in the sector.

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For Chief Executive Officer Niyi Onifade, the company’s rapid rise was neither accidental nor the product of short-term ambition. Instead, it was the culmination of years of preparation, a clear strategy and an unwavering commitment to execution.

“Those seven years, we were not sleeping,” Onifade said, referring to the period before the company received its operating licence. “We were actually carrying out research. Before we got licensed at all, we already knew the pain points of Nigerians.”

That research shaped the company’s understanding of one fundamental truth: Nigerians are willing to buy insurance when it works.

“People say Nigerians don’t believe in insurance, but we know Nigerians believe in insurance that works,” he said.

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From the outset, Heirs Life focused on a purpose-driven strategy built around improving lives and making insurance accessible to more Nigerians and, ultimately, Africans. According to Onifade, four pillars have driven the company’s success: strategy, technology, people and execution.

The timing of the company’s launch during the COVID-19 pandemic made digital transformation a necessity rather than an option. As physical interactions became limited, technology became central to the company’s operations and customer engagement strategy.

“We started during COVID-19. There was no way we could have succeeded without technology,” Onifade explained.

This commitment to digital innovation has helped the company simplify insurance processes and improve customer experiences in an industry often associated with complexity and bureaucracy.

However, technology alone would not have been enough. Onifade credits much of the company’s success to its workforce, describing employees as the driving force behind every achievement.

“You may have the best strategy and the best technology, but if you don’t have the people, it’s a problem,” he said.

The company deliberately recruited top talent from both within and outside the insurance industry, creating a culture focused on innovation and performance.

Yet, according to the CEO, the defining factor has been execution.

“You may have the people, you may have the technology, you may have the strategy, but if you don’t execute, you can’t get anything,” he said.

That emphasis on delivery has become especially important in an industry where promises around claims settlement and customer service often fail to translate into action. For Heirs Life, execution has meant ensuring that customers experience the value of insurance rather than merely hearing about it.

Managing growth while protecting major risks

As the company expands, it also faces the challenge of managing increasingly complex risks, including exposure to energy, aviation and other large-scale corporate sectors.

Onifade believes the solution lies in adhering to the core principles of insurance and avoiding excessive concentration of risk.

“The principle of insurance is very simple,” he said. “When you have a very big risk, the reasonable thing to do is to spread the risk.”

He explained that Heirs Life partners with highly rated global insurance and reinsurance companies, sharing exposure where necessary to ensure stability and resilience. This collaborative approach allows the company to participate in large transactions without compromising financial security.

“We balance it by partnering with highly rated insurance companies that operate with global best practices,” he said.

Transforming insurance through simplicity

Beyond growth, Heirs Life is also pursuing a broader mission of transforming how Nigerians interact with insurance products.

One of the company’s key priorities is simplifying policy documents, which have traditionally been filled with technical language and lengthy clauses that discourage consumers.

“On no account should any policyholder or prospect go and hire a telescope or magnifying glass to read an insurance policy,” Onifade said.

The company is reducing the complexity and length of policy documents while exploring digital delivery channels that make insurance easier to access. According to him, the future could involve customers receiving simple policy documents directly through platforms such as WhatsApp.

“Look, we did not just come into the insurance industry. We came to transform the industry,” he said.

The transformation agenda also extends to retirement products. Onifade believes annuity business will continue to grow significantly as regulatory reforms improve confidence and strengthen the industry’s ability to compete with other financial institutions.

“I see the annuity portfolio of the industry getting bigger and bigger,” he said. “I see us competing more even with the banks because things are changing fast.”

Investing in the next generation

While many insurers focus primarily on product sales and distribution, Heirs Life has invested heavily in educational initiatives aimed at young Nigerians.

The company’s annual essay competition, now in its fifth year, has become one of its flagship corporate responsibility programmes, reaching secondary school students across the country. It has also expanded its engagement with tertiary institutions through innovation-focused initiatives such as hackathons.

For Onifade, these programmes address a challenge that extends beyond insurance.

“If you look at the challenges of our nation, illiteracy, ignorance and lack of knowledge play critical roles,” he said.

The CEO argues that improving financial literacy among young people is essential not only for increasing insurance awareness but also for building stronger communities and future generations of informed decision-makers.

“We want to catch them while young,” he said. “When you educate the minds of people, you are impacting society and building the society of the future.”

Looking beyond Nigeria

Despite its achievements, Heirs Life sees itself as being only at the beginning of its growth journey.

Onifade revealed that the company intends to explore new areas within the broader financial services ecosystem while gradually expanding its footprint across Africa.

“In the next five years, we will no longer live on Nigeria alone,” he said. “We will get to a point where we will be describing ourselves as an insurance group of Africa, not of Nigeria.”

The expansion could eventually include adjacent financial services such as asset management and other complementary businesses, although the company plans to proceed cautiously.

“All those will come, step by step,” he said.

A journey defined by ambition

Reflecting on the company’s journey, Onifade recalls two moments that stand out above all others: receiving regulatory approval after seven years of preparation and officially opening the company’s doors in June 2021.

“Finally, at last,” he remembered thinking when the licence was granted.

Since then, the company has consistently met its performance targets, driven by what he describes as ambitious goals and strong shareholder support.

“Our targets are really audacious,” he said. “And we like this because it brings out the best in us.”

For a company that spent years preparing before launching, that philosophy perhaps best explains its remarkable growth story. Long before Heirs Life entered the market, its leadership was already laying the foundation for a business designed not just to participate in Nigeria’s insurance industry, but to reshape it.