By Favour Nnabugwu

The government of Cameroon has taken a step forward in its plans to establish a national reinsurance company, by name,  “Cameroon Reinsurance Corporation” (Cameroon-Re).

The government has submitted the final articles concerning the reinsurer to prospective shareholders, reported the news site EcoMatin quoting a source from the General Directorate of the Treasury under the Ministry of Finance. The articles are in line with the law governing the rights of commercial companies and economic interest groupings and with the Insurance Code of CIMA (Inter-African Conference on Insurance Markets).

The source said, “After this stage, we learn, it will be a question of applying for approval to CIMA before the launch of the reinsurer. But we do not know how long it will take to go through all these stages before launching the reinsurance company, which has been in the making since 2019 and whose main objective is to strengthen the capacities of local insurance companies and diversify insurance offerings.

Cameroon-Re will have an initial capital of FCFA15bn ($25m), to be held by local insurance and reinsurance companies (51%); a strategic partner, preferably a reinsurer (34%); the State of Cameroon (10%); and other shareholders (5%).

It will therefore be the second reinsurance company in the CEMAC zone, after the Société Commerciale Gabonaise de Réassurance (SCG-Ré), a subsidiary of the Gabonese Fund for Strategic Investments (FGIS).