(Business in Cameroon) - Assurance du Cameroun Vie, in short ACAM Vie. This is the name of the new insurance company approved in November 2016 by the Ministry of Finance, “after favourable recommendation of the Regional Insurance Audit Commission” from CIMA, the regulatory body in the insurance sector in Central and Western Africa.

The new company, which immediately started operating in the cities of Yaoundé and Douala, has an initial capital of FCfa one billion, including FCfa 750 million paid up as at 2 January 2017, we learned from official sources. With a focus on “life insurance, actuarial works and resource management”, ACAM Vie was founded by Geoffroy Delion, who is also founded in 2012 the firm Ressources et Assurances, specialised in HR consultancy and recruitment for the insurance sector; Aymric Kamega and Frédéric Planchet, two actuary specialists; and Martin Ziguélé, an insurance expert who was Prime Minister in the Central African Republic.

With a turnover officially estimated at FCfa 182 billion in 2015, in increase by 13%, the Cameroonian insurance market is booming, according to experts. From this point of view, the American strategy advisory firm Bain & Company claims for example that the banks and insurance companies wishing to establish themselves in countries such as DR Congo, Côte d’Ivoire or Cameroon, can bet on increases in their revenues of 15 to 20%.

All things considered, if Cameroon, 2^nd insurance market in the CIMA zone after Côte d’Ivoire, attracts more investors, the Cameroonian market, which has about twenty companies actively trading, is also one of the most undisciplined in CIMA, with companies regularly sanctioned for not respecting their commitments and prudential standards.

BRM