Insurer Sunu has just celebrated its 20th birthday. It was December 1, 2018 in Dakar on the sidelines of a colorful ceremony marked by the presence of delegations representing the 24 subsidiaries from the 15 African countries where the group is located. Strategic partners were also involved.
The choice of Senegal for this jubilee is not trivial. It is in this country where everything started in 1999 with the takeover of CSAR-Vie, now Union of Insurance of Senegal Life (UASEN-Life), evolving today under the Sunu label like all the subsidiaries of the group.
But the real starting point of this improbable saga began a few months ago in Paris in the headquarters of the Axa group, which had just completed its merger with the UAP International group.
The development projections made by the French giant at the end of this strategic operation gave pride of place to the developed countries (Europe, America) and Asia. Africa was not considered interesting on the life insurance side. Then Director Africa of the UAP, Pathé Dione then takes his courage in both hands and goes knock on the door of Claude Bébéar. The CEO of Axa will reject it three times before accepting the idea of the Senegalese insurer. “Make me the list of companies that interest you”.
Pathé Dione who did not have “a penny in his pocket” had just hit a big blow. The Sunu company was born thanks, it must be said, to the daring of its founder and a convention with Axa. Party with five companies * and a credit of 300 million CFA francs, the group has reached many milestones in twenty years.
At the end of the 2018 financial year, the turnover should amount to 163 billion CFA francs and 400 billion CFA francs under management.
“If I had been told twenty years ago that I would be here today, I would not believe it,” said Pathé Dione at the anniversary party with the emotion of the inventor who sees the materialization of the work long imagined.
The group bases its reason for existing in Pan-Africanism. “All our assets under management are invested in Africa within the limits of the code of the Inter African Conference of Insurance Markets (CIMA).”
And Pathé Dione to increase, faithful to his vision of a strong African private sector and participating in the development effort. “Not a single penny is invested outside of Africa. We subscribe to all the obligations of our states “. The founder of Sunu reaffirmed the desire of his group to remain independent while developing quality partnerships.
These five Sunu subsidiaries are: CSAR-Vie, now Senegal Life Insurance Union (UASen-Vie) in Senegal, UAT-Vie in Togo, UBA-Vie in Benin, UAC in Central Africa and UGAN-IARD in Niger.
