Bakary Kamara, a wise man's itinerary

Bakary Kamara is not part of the pioneer generation of African insurance. Only at the start of the 1980s did he come across the business legends who launched ideas and established the first companies of the newly-independent states. In west Africa, these pioneers are named Ahmadou Kourouma (Côte d'Ivoire), Diouldé Niane (Senegal).

Bakary Kamara may be considered as the floor leader of the second generation of African insurers. Like Diagou (Côte d'Ivoire) or Bene Lawson (Togo), he had had specialised training programs in insurance following university graduation.

As a cultured graduate, confirmed insurer, refined multi-lingual negotiator, this man of dialogue has always displayed absolute serenity. At 60 years of age, he is the most renowned and respected African insurer.

Nothing seems to stand in the way of the man who, in thirty years of professional career, reached the top of the African Hierarchy. Yet, life has not always been easy for this Mauritanian national. He had to fight, persuade and meet the challenges. Everything he has achieved resulted from hard work and from the know-how he has accumulated over the years. In Africa, more than anywhere else, anything can collapse overnight. In such unstable environment, it is hard to survive or even to exist. Yet Bakary Kamara has always come out top of the list for two decades, and very few can follow in his footsteps.

It was such a long path for someone who, since the age of 13, left his native province to join Nouakchott high school. The Mauritanian capital was only the first step of a long journey which led him to Dakar where he studied law for six years. Later, he laid his hat in Tours, France for post-graduate studies in insurance law.

Back to Mauritania in 1978, he joins the civil service and starts his insurance career. It was at the Société Mauritanienne d'Assurance et de Réassurance (SMAR) that he had learned the business. He quit SMAR six years later when he was Deputy General Manager.

Bakary Kamara's career got boosted when he joined Africa Re in September 1984. Based in Lagos, he managed to cope with one of the most complex environments and to make use of his undeniable capacity to rise to the challenge of a multinational entrusted with the interests of all African countries.

Rising from the position of Secretary General to that of General Manager of Africa Re in 1993, Bakary Kamara had displayed his innate sense of balance, shaping with great mastery the destiny of the company.

The company's financial capacity building, the growth of the turnover, the continent networking through the establishment of subsidiaries and representations all over Africa, are some of the success stories to be added to his credit.
Africa Re's rise to the status of a giant at the continental level is unquestionably owed to Bakary Kamara.