Patience Saghana

Vice Chairman of IGI’s Gamstar Insurance Company Limited, Banjul, The Gambia, Mr. Bai-Ndongo Faal has been sworn into office as the new President of the African Insurance Organisation (AIO) following the death of the body’s late president, Pa Alhassan Jagne.

Faal was sworn in at the 16th African Reinsurers Forum in Casablanca, Morocco recently in order to complete the mandate of the Late Pa Jagne who mounted the leadership in May this year but died on July 8, 2010.

AIO presidency is rotated every year with host countries emerging as president of the body.
The African Insurance Organisation (AIO) is a non-governmental organisation recognised by many African governments. Its main objectives are the promotion of inter-African co-operation and development of a healthy insurance and re-insurance industry in the continent.

Born in the early fifties, Faal acquired primary school education from Methodist Preparatory and high school education from Armitage. He left Gambia for USA where an eight-year sojourn empowered him with a BA in Economics and an MBA in Insurance Management from the American University and the College of Insurance respectively. Switzerland was his next stop where he was issued with a certificate in Insurance at the Swiss Insurance Training Centre.

Although things were not rosy with Bai Ndongo Faal christened ‘Gamstar’ in the nineties, he weathered all storms, cleared all hurdles and guided his brainchild through it all, carving a niche in the Gambian insurance topography for Gamstar.

The AIO organise the annual Conference and General Assembly, the annual African Reinsurance Forum as well as various meetings, seminars and workshops.

The AIO is a non-governmental organisation recognised by many African governments, including Cameroon which has signed a headquarters agreement with it and where it has set up its permanent secretariat. AIO was established in 1972.

There are four categories of members: The Insurance Industry, Regulatory/Supervisory authorities, Training Centers as well as National and Regional associations.

AIO has 287 members from 50 countries in Africa and associate international members from 5 countries.

The main objectives of AIO are the promotion of inter-African co-operation and development of a healthy insurance and reinsurance industry in Africa.

AIO has a general secretariat headed by the Secretary General. The supreme body of the Organisation is its General Assembly which appoints the President, Vice-President and Executive Committee Members.

AIO organises the annual African insurance conference and general assembly, the annual African Reinsurance Forum, the annual life seminar, as well as various workshops and seminars during the year.