14/03/2023
Finance: CNPS invests nearly one billion FCFA to join SNH in the capital of Chanas Assurances Vie
Business in Cameroon) - Created in July 2022 to position the Chanas assurances group in the field of life insurance, Chanas assurances Vie SA experienced two major events on March 6, 2023, during an extraordinary Board meeting organized in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. First of all, there is the appointment of the very first general manager of this new insurance company, in the person of Jeanne Nelly Bakang, wife Yomba, poached from Sunu Assurances Vie Cameroon, of which she has been the CEO since 2020.
On March 6, 2023, the Board of Directors then included the representative of the National Social Security Fund (CNPS) among its members, thus confirming the arrival in the round table of the new insurance company of the public pension fund. from Cameroon. Good sources, thanks to an investment of 700 million FCFA, fully paid up, the CNPS acquired 3,500 shares of Chanas assurances Vie SA.
This investment fits perfectly into the development strategy of this public company, which, according to its managing director, Alain Olivier Noël Mekulu Mvondo Akam (photo), intends to double the income from its financial investments over the next 5 years. According to figures from the CNPS, these revenues increased by 5 billion FCFA in 2021 (+35%), reaching 20.5 billion FCFA at the end of the financial year.
Thanks to its new investment, the CNPS, which enjoys solid financial health (325 billion FCFA in cash as of June 17, 2021), thus joins in the shareholding of Chanas Assurance Vie reference players in the Cameroonian economy such as the National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH), which controls the capital, or the subsidiary in Cameroon of Banco Nacional de Guinea Equatorial (Bange Bank Cameroon). “ (…) We have reference shareholders, who are well known in terms of rigor and citizenship. Chanas Assurances Vie SA will be well positioned to take on the market ”, rejoices the first Managing Director of Chanas Assurances Vie.
Gaining market share
By extending its activities to the life branch, with shareholders with an established reputation such as the CNPS, the Chanas assurances group is thus embarking on the conquest of new market shares, after having been a real juggernaut there until 2013. Indeed , it was in this year that Chanas, then leader of the insurance market in Cameroon, began a descent into hell, following an open conflict between the then CEO, Jacqueline Cassalegno, and the National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH), the main shareholder.
But the company will gradually recover after the departure of Ms. Cassalegno, thanks to the financial contribution of SNH. The secular arm of the State of Cameroon in the oil sector is injecting 2.3 billion FCFA into it in 2020. This was thanks to a capital increase operation aimed at bringing it to 6 billion FCFA, against 2.3 billion FCFA in the past.
According to data published by the Association of Insurance Companies of Cameroon (Asac), Chanas assurances is number 3 in the IARDT (Fire, Accidents and Miscellaneous Risks) market in Cameroon in 2021, with 10.65% market share. , compared to 10.02% in 2020. Chanas assurances SA is once again outclassed by AXA (14.11%) and Activa assurance (11.30%). Chanas assurance Vie, for its part, will now have to struggle to carve out a place for itself alongside Allianz and Prudential Beneficial Life, which, in 2021, shared half of the turnover (49.93%) of the Life branch in Cameroon.
Brice R. Mbodiam
Investir Au Cameroun