Bunna International Bank nominated board members after raising less than one-fifth of the capital that it had hoped to raise.
The meeting to elect members of the board was attended by 66% of the 246 current shareholders of the company. The shareholders elected nine nominees to the board and submitted the names to the National Bank of Ethiopia for final approval.
Bunna will officially become the 16th insurance company in the nation if the central bank approves the list of nominees.
The Insurer licensed by the NBE in August of 2011 had hoped to sell 500,000 shares to raise 50 million birr but only managed to raise 8.63 million birr which is just over half of the subscribed capital said Zewdu Minas, promoter for the Insurance Company in a report presented during the election of board members.
Bunna Insurance is being promoted by essentially the same group behind the founding of Bunna International Bank in 2009.
The company has set a minimum purchase of 50 shares valued at 5000 birr and a maximum of 10,000 shares.
The company will be offering standard life and non life insurance policies as well as re-insurance and related efforts explained Kasahun Begashaw, Project Manager for the Insurer. Bunna expects to launch operations in the coming September.
Insurance companies operating in the country have a total number of 300,000 clients as of 2011. The dominant actor in the insurance sector is the publicly owned Ethiopian Insurance Company which has a capital of 291 million birr making up 30% of the total capital registered by the other 14 insurers.
All insurance companies in operation in Ethiopia have a cumulative 300,000 clients as of 2011. The sector’s contribution to the national GDP growth during the same year was only 0.041pc, according to data from NBE.
Source: Addis Fortune
