Jean Kacou Diagou

Jean K. Diagou is the Chairman and CEO of NSIA Group, an African insurance and banking group present today in 12 countries throughout West and Central Africa and still expanding in the continent. NSIA was founded in 1995 by current group chairman and 40-year insurance industry veteran Jean Kacou Diagou. Starting out with the buyout of the Ivorian subsidiary of AGF, the renamed French company, NSIA expanded into Benin, Gabon, Senegal, Congo and Togo. In 2006, it acquired BIAO, the third largest bank in Cote d’Ivoire, permitting it to offer combined bank and insurance “bancassurance” products to its clients, while pursuing its expansion across the CFA zone. Together, NSIA and BIAO employ more than 800 people in the region.

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In 2009, NSIA ventured into English speaking Africa with its takeover of Ghana-based CDH Insurance, and later the Nigerian ADIC Insurance.

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In 2008, the private equity firm, Emerging Capital Partners (USA) acquired 26% stake in the capital of NSIA.

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Mr. Diagou is a Member of the Board of Directors of CiCA Re, a sub-regional reinsurance company based in Lomé, Togo.

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Mr. Diagou, an economist, who studied as a seminarian in his youth, wants to structure financial products that meet the needs of the African masses in a continent where the insurance penetration rate is only 1%. Until he created NSIA, Mr. Diagou was one of the top officials of the French premier Insurance conglomerate UAP (Union des Assurances de Paris) in French-speaking Africa.

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He is also the Former President of CGECI (Confédération générale des entreprises de Côte d’Ivoire) and Former President of the Fédération des Organisations Patronales d’Afrique de l’ouest (FOPAO).