A company named Atlantique Assurances Cameroun IARDT with a starting capital of CFA2.1 billion was established on February 4, 2016, in Douala. This can be read in a recently published legal notice. 

The new company, whose corporate purpose stipulates that it is an insurance company specialized in accidents, is headed by Guy Rolland Rasoanaivo, and has at the top of its board Ivorian businessman Koné Dossongui.

This last detail (adding to the fact that the institution’ shareholding comprises the Consortium of Ivorian Financiers which is held by M. Dossongui) is clear proof that the new institution is the subsidiary of Atlantic Financial Group (AFG), an Ivorian insurance firm.

AFG is already operating in Cameroon's banking sector through Banque Atlantique. The lender, it should be recalled, was born after the Ivorian group acquired Amity Bank’s assets subsequent to a legal process initiated by the CEMAC’s Common Court of Justice and Arbitration.

With Atlantique Assurances Cameroun IARDT, AFG in partnership with Morocco’s Central Bank (Banque Centrale Populaire -BCP), is entering the CEMAC's insurance market after successfully establishing itself in Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Mali, and Benin more recently.

As a reminder, Cameroon is, after Cote d'Ivoire, the second most important insurance market of the inter-African conference on insurance markets (Conférence Interafricaine des Marchés d'Assurances - CIMA), a regulatory body regrouping 15 countries in Central and West Africa.

Brice R. Mbodiam