Senegal: banker and businessman Pathé Dione is dead
A great gentleman of African finance has just disappeared.
The Senegalese insurer and banker Pathé Dione died on January 12, 2023 in Paris at the age of 81.
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A great gentleman of African finance has just disappeared.
The Senegalese insurer and banker Pathé Dione died Thursday in Paris at the age of 81.
The businessman was the president and founder of the Sunu Assurances group, present in 17 countries and with around thirty subsidiaries in West and Central Africa.
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Born in 1998, the pan-African group claims to be the leader in life insurance in the CIMA zone, the Inter-African Conference of Insurance Markets, with a turnover in 2020 of more than 206 billion CFA francs, or 312 millions of euros.
The last big blow of Pathé Dione was last July, when the Sunu group bought more than 54% of the shares of the French bank BNP Paribas from its Senegalese subsidiary Bicis.
"
It's a great loss for Senegal and for Africa
", regrets Moubarack Lô, president of the Office of Economic Forecasting at the Prime Minister's Office.
“
Pathé Dione symbolized audacity and also success,
” he underlines, hailing a remarkable model of African success
.
He created a successful group, which is currently in several countries, more than ten countries.
Very recently, he bought most of the assets of BNP.
Banque Nationale de Paris Paribas in Senegal to become a majority shareholder.
So it's extremely rare to see a reverse privatization.
He is an African entrepreneur who buys the shares of a multinational.
He was ready to start and also succeed in this new adventure.
»
Moubarack Lô also salutes the memory of a discreet man and a reference for many.
“
It's true that we didn't hear much about him, it was only when he did major operations.
He is a very discreet person, but who succeeds in everything that takes him.
It's extremely rare, so it's really a model that will undoubtedly inspire several generations of African entrepreneurs and executives for the future.
»
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