FANAF (Federation of African National Insurance Companies)

Founded in 1976, the Federation of African National Insurance Companies (FANAF) brings together insurers and reinsurers from the continent, mostly from French-speaking Africa and the zone of the Inter-African Conference on Insurance Markets (CIMA), and is headquartered in Dakar. The word that matters in its name is national: the federation was born when the post-independence markets were replacing the branches of French companies with locally incorporated companies, and for a long time it carried their voice against foreign groups. Today it acts as a trade body. It represents the market before CIMA and its Regional Insurance Supervisory Commission, publishes statistics, and runs training and technical committees. The zone's major regulatory reforms go through its debates, such as the rule requiring premium payment before cover or the increase in companies' minimum capital decided in 2016, which small companies saw as a threat. Its annual general assembly, held each year in a different city, is the meeting point of the French-speaking market. CEOs of local companies, regulators, African and international reinsurers, and brokers from Paris and London meet there for a few days. The resolutions voted in session matter less than what happens on the side: preparing treaty renewals, meetings between cedants and reinsurers, first talks about an acquisition. For a foreign reinsurer or underwriter that wants to work in the CIMA zone, this is often where relationships with fronting insurers are built. The caveat is institutional. FANAF has no regulatory power, its positions remain those of a stakeholder, and the zone's rules are read in the CIMA Code, not in its press releases.