“I am in favor of a FANAF of proximity, action, and transformation”
With a career of over four decades in insurance in Francophone Africa, Evelyne Fassinou embodies a rare blend of technical expertise, strategic leadership, and societal commitment. A candidate for the presidency of FANAF for the term 2026-2029, she positions herself as the voice of an insurance industry rooted in African realities, oriented towards action, and serving development.
A native of Benin, trained at the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Institute of Insurance in Paris, Evelyne Fassinou began her career within the African Union in Côte d’Ivoire, which later became AXA Côte d’Ivoire after the AXA/UAP merger. Over more than 20 years, she climbed the ranks to hold positions as Deputy General Manager of AXA Non-Life Insurance, and then AXA Life Insurance. From her time in a large international group, she retains a taste for rigor and innovation.
However, it was in 2005, in Benin, that she fully embraced an entrepreneurial path by founding AVIE (Life Insurance), which she led for over 10 years before its merger with SUNU Insurance in 2016. An enriching experience, with a focus on local realities, innovation, and the ability to create value in a complex environment. Currently serving as Chair of the Board of Directors of SUNU Life Insurance Benin, a board member of SUNU Non-Life Insurance Benin, and a member of the executive committee of FANAF, she remains a central figure in the sector.
In an interview with Financial Afrik, Evelyne Fassinou presents a clear and lucid vision: insurance, she says, cannot be limited to a financial product. It must be a lever for transforming African societies, a safety net for populations, a tool for managing risks on an individual, economic, and climatic scale.
As a candidate for the “FANAF of action,” she proposes agile, inclusive governance, attentive to all its members, capable of anticipating industry changes, including the challenges of digitization, talent management, and regulatory adaptation. She advocates for capacity building through continuous training, an essential lever in her eyes for building a strong, resilient, and competitive sector.
Her profile stands out in a landscape often dominated by rigid institutional logic. She embodies a FANAF of proximity, which values the realities of national insurance markets without denying continental ambitions. In a world where risks are becoming systemic, her stance is that of a builder, a woman of action, guided by her vision of a strong federation, serving its members and the socio-economic development of the continent.
