Allianz Africa COO Appointed President Of AIO

Allianz Africa announced the appointment of Allianz Africa Chief Operations Officer (COO), Delphine Traoré, as President of the African Insurance Organization (AIO) effective June 12, 2019.

Prior to this appointment, Delphine served as Vice President of the organization from 2018 and takes over from Managing Director of Ghana Union Assurance, Arethu Duku.

The announcement was made at the just concluded AIO’s 46th conference and annual general assembly held at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg from June 9 – 13, 2019.

Delphine joined the Regional Executive board of Allianz Africa as COO in February 2017. She is responsible for the development of Allianz’s business in the African continent. In addition, Delphine remains a non-executive member of the board of management of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) Africa, where she previously held the position of CEO.

“I am honored and privileged to be appointed as President of the AIO. I look forward to continuing to work together with the leadership of the AIO to making the African insurance and reinsurance industry stronger, united and sustainable,” Traoré said.

She added, “Our mission is to create an environment, which enables the market to increase insurance penetration and to promote the industry’s best practices and projects, which show the benefits of insurance to consumers.”

Originally from Burkina Faso, Delphine has received numerous awards and recognitions for the significant roles she plays in the insurance and risk management sector. Some of them include: the Choiseul 100 Africa, AIO’s African Insurance Awards, Africa Economy Builders Awards to name but a few.  She led the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA) resulting in the appointment of its first black female CEO and enabled it to collaborate with the AIO and other institutions across the continent on education and skills development. Delphine is also a Board member of the African Risk Capacity, which develops insurance solutions for African Union member countries against various impacts of climate change.

Delphine Traoré Maïdou joined Regional Executive Board of Allianz Africa as Chief Operations Officer (COO) in February 2017. She is responsible for the development of Allianz’s business on the African continent. In addition, Delphine remains a non-executive member of the board of management of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) South Africa where she previously held the position of CEO. Originally from Burkina Faso, Delphine has consistently been ranked as one of the top economic leaders for tomorrow by the Choiseul 100 Africa study.

After graduating, in 1996, she joined Ohio Casualty Group of Insurance initially as a Senior Commercial Multi-Lines Insurance Underwriter and Marketing Representative and later as Regional Underwriting Manager. In 2005, she joined Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) Canada and held positions of a Liability Underwriter and Head of Market Management where she was responsible for identifying potential markets, client and broker target segments to support business development across Canada.

Delphine is a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) from the American Institute For Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters. She also holds a Master of Science in Insurance Management from Boston University, Boston, USA.

She graduated Cum Laude Bachelor of Science in Business and Accounting from University of Pittsburgh, in the United States of America (USA) in 1996.

The African Insurance Organisation (AIO), established in 1972, is a non-governmental organisation recognised by many African governments. Following the headquarters agreement the government of Cameroon signed with the organisation, the Permanent Secretariat of the AIO was set up in that country.

The African Insurance Organisation consists of a General Secretariat, headed by a Secretary General, an Executive Committee, headed by the President and the General Assembly which is the supreme body of the Organisation.

The AIO came into being in 1972 in Mauritius with the following objectives: To develop a healthy insurance and reinsurance industry in Africa; To promote inter-African co-operation in Insurance.

Its future priority areas include: Consolidating and strengthening the existing pools and associations set up by AIO; partnering with other organisations, notably the World Bank, UNCTAD, ILO and Access to Insurance Initiative in various capacity building programmes;  encourage the development of Microinsurance and promoting African Regulatory Capacity Building’  as well as promoting the capacity building of African Training Institutes.

Others are:  promoting the Management of Life and Pension funds for development; developing the AIO website into a veritable reference point for African insurance; promoting the African Centre for Catastrophe Risks; creating a Pool for Catastrophe Risks and encouraging scholarly research.

In Africa, Allianz is currently present in 13 countries and accompanies clients in 39 countries. Its 1,500 employees achieved regional revenues of 588 million Euros in 2018. Allianz also provides micro-insurance for 500,000 low-income families and individuals in Africa.

The Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers with more than 92 million retail and corporate customers. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 673 billion Euros on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage more than 1.4 trillion Euros of third-party assets. Thanks to its systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in their business processes and investment decisions, Allianz holds the leading position for insurers in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2018, over 142,000 employees in more than 80 countries achieved total revenues of 131 billion Euros and an operating profit of 11.5 billion Euros for the group.