Board of Directors

Mr Bakary Kamara has served as Chairman of African Reinsurance Corporation South Africa Ltd since July 2004, after joining the company as Secretary General of the Group from September 1984 and being appointed Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer in July 1993. He has also been Chairman of Africa Retakaful (Egypt) since April 2009.

Kamara is an Administrateur Civil (the highest category in the French speaking civil service).

He began his career in the insurance industry as a Legal Adviser for SMAR - Mauritania’s State insurance company - from 1 May to 11 November 1978. He occupied the role of Deputy Managing Director from September 1979 to January 1984, while also serving as visiting professor in third-year Business Law at the National School of Public Administration (E.N.A.) during the 1978-1979 academic year. From 1980 to 1984 he occupied the role of Director at AFARCO, a Mauritanian real estate company.

Kamara served as Technical Adviser to the Minister of Finance & Trade (in charge of insurance matters and International Trade Relations) from January to August 1984.

He is currently the Executive Chairman of Gras Savoye Mauritania and an International

Consultant in Management, Governance and Coaching.

Kamara serves as Independent Director in several insurance and reinsurance

companies and banks, and has been a member of various boards, councils and professional

bodies. He speaks French, English, Soninke, Pular, Wolof, Hassaniya and Spanish.

Mr Kamara holds a Bachelor's Degree in General Law and Faculty of Law (Dakar), a Master's Degree in Civil Law - Business Law (Dakar), a Diploma of the Insurance Institute of Tours (France) and Diploma of High Studies (D.E.S.S) in Insurance Law (France). 

Dr Corneille KAREKEZI rose to the current position of Group Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer of Africa Re in July 2011 after a transitional period of 2 years during which he served successively as Deputy Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director / Chief Operating Officer. Between 2003 and 2005 he served on the Board of Africa Re.

His professional career started in 1991 as Chief Accountant /Reinsurance Manager of the leading insurance company in Burundi (SOCABU s.m.), where he rose to the position of Head of the Finance Department. In 1995, he joined the leading insurance company in Rwanda (SONARWA s.a.) as Deputy Head of the Commercial & Technical Department. From 1996, he successively headed all the Technical Departments (Motor, Fire, Accidents & Miscellaneous Risks and Life) and was appointed Deputy Managing Director in early 2001. In February 2008, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of SONARWA s.a.

Dr KAREKEZI holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics (Burundi), Postgraduate diplomas in Business Administration (UK), a Master’s degree in Management (Burundi), an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration (UK) and a Doctorate in Business Administration (France). He speaks fluently English, French, Swahili and other African languages.

Since 1996, he has contributed significantly to the development of the insurance / reinsurance industry in Africa through his involvement and leadership in various national, regional and continental initiatives and organizations. He has equally participated actively as speaker in seminars, conferences, symposia and other fora across the world.

He has served as Chairman and member of various governing bodies of financial institutions in Africa. He is currently the Vice Chairman of Africa Re (South Africa) Limited, Vice Chairman of Africa Retakaful Company (Egypt) and a Member of the Executive Committee of the African Insurance Organization (AIO) where he chairs the Finance Committee.

Mr. Salah Eldin is a highly qualified insurance professional. He started his insurance career in Sudan in 1983 and occupied senior managerial posts in a number of reputable insurance and reinsurance companies in Sudan, Yemen, Sultanate of Oman and Qatar. He has gained a wealth of experience in insurance and reinsurance and is devoted to the promotion of Takaful Industry, contributing to the establishment of Takaful companies in a number of countries.

More recently, Mr. Salah Eldin has been elected as the Vice- President of the FOIITC. Mr Salah is also the Chair of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) Takaful Network; the role also includes representation on the ICMIF Board of Directors, the highest level of ICMIF’s governance.

He is a professional qualified insurer with a B.Sc. (Honours) degree from the Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, University of Khartoum and Diploma in Insurance Studies and Insurance Management from University of Nottingham and The City University, United Kingdom.

He sits on the board of quite a number of companies and currently the Manging Director/Chief Executive of Shiekan Insurance & Reinsurance Company, Sudan.

Mr. Gouda is the Managing Director, Africa Retakaful Company, he holds BSC of Commerce, ACII, Insurance Consultant.

He Joined Insurance in1982, and worked with different firms, started with Egyptian Insurance Services Authority (EISA), NICE, Al Ahlia, ESIH, and lastly with Africa Re since October 2003. He has over 23 years of experience in top Managerial levels, having in-depth experience in direct insurance and Reinsurance.

He is also a Member of many technical committees and Boards in many companies and institutions; Worked in collaboration with Africa re management in the establishment of Africa Retakaful, which has successfully been launched and commenced business in 2010 after a comprehensive efforts being made. Also he worked actively in the development of Takaful on the last years with different Associations and companies, and presented many Takaful papers in Takaful seminars, workshops and conferences.

His professional career as Managing director - African Retakaful Company, Africa Retakaful from September 2010 till present.

He is the Regional Director of Africa Re Cairo- North East Africa and Middle East Region; from October 2003 till Present; he was also the General Manager – Egyptian Saudi Insurance Home co.- first shariaa compliant company in Egypt, February 2003 - October 2003.

He also joined Al Ahlia for Cooperative Insurance – Saudi Arabia from January 2000 till February 2003; and he was Technical Affairs GM in National Insurance Company of Egypt from June 1991 till January 2000.

Mr. Abdul Mohsen holds Bachelor of Commerce, Insurance Department, Cairo University (Egypt), 1987; a 75-day advanced training course in life insurance at the Swiss Insurance Institute (Zurich)-Swiss Reinsurance Company.

His life Training Course, Victory Insurance Company, UK (London), a Training course on actuarial sciences in India (Bona), he also participated in the scientific symposium at the Arab Center for Social Insurance on the importance of developing and developing methods of providing insurance benefits and in the Arab Symposium on Life Insurance in Lebanon (Beirut) for the year 2000 and beyond.

Mr. Abdul Mohsen Participated in seminars and conferences in Egypt, Cameroon, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, India, Malaysia, Tunisia, France.

His professional career started as employee of the Sudanese Oil Corporation (10/8/1979 - 14/1/1987.) then Head of Takaful (Alternative Life Insurance) in the Islamic Insurance Company 15/6/1987 - 23/11/1991, Business management of marketing of insurance products 1/1/1992 - 15/10/1993.

He Joined Sheikan Insurance Company since 2/12/1993 where she held the following positions:

• Director of Takaful Management.

• Assistant General Manager of Takaful.

• Assistant Managing Director to minimize losses as well as assigning the position of Assistant Managing Director of Branches for different periods.

• He was the Managing Director of Shiekan Insurance and Reinsurance Company to date.

He has several Activities in committees:

• Ruler of the Islamic Supervisory Board of the Islamic Insurance Company.

• Former Rapporteur of the Life Insurance Committee of the Federation of Sudanese Insurance Companies and a member of the Life Insurance and Takaful Committee of the Arab Union of Insurance in Cairo

• Rapporteur of the Medical Insurance Committee of the Union of Sudanese Insurance Companies and member of the Arab Union of Medical Insurance Committee to date.

• Member of the board of directors of the company for printing, publishing and distribution.

• Member of the Board of Directors of Omdurman National Bank.

• Member of the Board of Directors of the Sudanese Company for Free Zones and Markets.

• Board member of Seminar Engineering Company.

• Participated as a coach of labor culture events on Takaful insurance for vocational skills and trade unions in all states of Sudan

He had scientific papers and research:

• Preparation of a study comparing social insurance services, pensions and takaful provided as a paper for the conference of trade union dialogue in Friendship Hall.

• Search for the marketing of insurance services provided as a training paper on the marketing of insurance services.

• A paper on the nature of the coverage of hazardous diseases was presented to the Committee on Life Insurance and Takaful in the Arab Insurance Union in Tunis, with a review of the company's experience as the first experience of this coverage in the Arab market

• Training papers on the subscription of Takaful and settlement of claims as training papers for agents and insurance employees and employees of trade union organizations.

Mr. Kotb was appointed the Chairman of the Insurance Federation of Egypt From 2007 till 2017, He is the Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of Egyptian Saudi Insurance House Co., Egypt, the First Takaful Insurance Co. in Egypt Since 2003, also he is Chairman of the Insurance Institute of Egypt since July 2015.

He was Chairman of FAIR for two periods from October 2011 till October 2013 and from October 2015 till October 2017 Considering his remarkable achievements in the Afro-Asian Insurance industry, FAIR' Executive Board in its 55th session held in Beirut Lebanon, in September 2014 resolved to honour Mr. Kotb as the 3rd Laureate of the FAIR Hall of Fame.

Mr. Kotb is also Chairman of the International Federation of Takaful & Islamic Insurance Companies (AFTI) since October 2016, and he was Chairman of the African Insurance Organisation “AIO” during 2013 / 2014.

From 2011to 2013, he was Council Member of Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University, He has contributed to the development of the insurance and reinsurance Industry in the Egyptian Market as well as the African and Asian continents as he has occupied several positions on local and regional levels.

Mr. Kotb has authored and edited several articles, papers, books and training manuals for various insurance and reinsurance topics, He has spoken widely on the most important issues and topics related to insurance and takaful industry and consults regularly with trade Associations, and Regulators.

Mr. Yousif El Lazim GAMMA was appointed Managing Director of Africa Retakaful, and Africa Re Local Representative in Sudan, in January 2021.

Prior to this appointment Mr. GAMMA was the Acting Regional Director for the Cairo Regional Office (North East Africa and Middle East) since May 2020; he was also Assistant Director, Technical Operations, in the same office. He joined Africa Re in July 2009 as a Senior Underwriter in the Cairo Regional Office.

Mr. GAMMA started his career in 1991 as underwriter in the National Reinsurance Company (Sudan); he worked for Seven (7) years in Non-Marine Department. In 1998, he joined Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) as Head of Risk and Insurance Unit. In 2005 he was recruited by Savanna Insurance Company as General Manager in charge of all executive operations.

Mr. GAMMA holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics (Honours) from the University of Khartoum; an MBA from the School of Business Administration (University of Khartoum) and an MBA from the German University of Cairo (GUC).He is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of London (ACII).

Mr. GAMMA has attended many seminars, workshops, and conferences.