Becoming an Insurance Broker or General Agent in the CIMA Zone: The Agrément, the Financial Guarantee and the Compulsory Professional Liability Cover

Direct answer. Under the CIMA Insurance Code, no one may present insurance operations to the public — soliciting, negotiating or explaining the terms of a policy — unless they fall into one of the categories listed at Article 501: an authorised broker or brokerage firm, a mandated general agent, a salaried employee of an insurer, broker or general agent, or certain non-salaried commission-based intermediaries. Brokers and general agents must additionally hold a standing financial guarantee under Article 524 and brokers must hold a dedicated professional liability insurance contract under Articles 537 to 540, in addition to the ministerial authorisation (agrément) required of brokers under Article 530. A business that places fleet, property, liability or employee-benefits cover through an intermediary in the CIMA zone should ask that intermediary to produce current evidence of all three — the authorisation, the guarantee attestation and the professional-liability attestation — since the Code treats each as a continuing, not a one-off, condition of practice.

Legal basis

The relevant provisions sit in Book 5 of the CIMA Insurance Code (Livre 5 — Agents généraux, courtiers et autres intermédiaires d'assurance et de capitalisation), annexed to the Treaty establishing the Inter-African Conference on Insurance Markets (CIMA) of 10 July 1992 and applicable as such in all fourteen member states (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad and Togo). Article 501 restricts the presentation of insurance operations to four categories of person. Article 506 bars anyone convicted of a crime or délit, subject to personal bankruptcy or stripped of a ministerial office from practising as a broker or general agent, and Article 508 adds age-of-majority, CIMA-state nationality and professional-capacity conditions, policed under Article 509 by whoever employs or mandates the intermediary. Article 514 sets the professional-capacity routes for brokers and general agents themselves — a listed diploma plus a professional internship, or two years of relevant experience inside an insurer, broker or brokerage firm, among the alternatives — while Article 515 sets a shorter track for salaried or non-salaried intermediaries.

Brokerage itself additionally requires a specific authorisation: Article 530 subjects the exercise of the broker's profession to the agrément of the minister in charge of insurance in the state where the authorisation is sought, who keeps and circulates a list of authorised brokers to the Commission de contrôle (CIMA's regional supervisor, CRCA) and to insurers licensed in that state. Article 533 lists the supporting file — birth certificate, clean criminal record extract less than three months old, diplomas and professional certificates, trade-register receipt, and, for a company, its statutes, notarised certificate of paid-up capital, shareholder and director lists with nationalities, and three years of projected accounts — and Article 534 requires the authorisation (and its withdrawal) to be granted by ministerial order published in the Journal Officiel. Article 535 lists the events that make an authorisation lapse — death, bankruptcy, six months without actually practising, or, for a company, dissolution or a change of corporate name — and Article 532 bars a list of incompatible occupations, including insurer employees and directors, motor dealers and their finance arms, building contractors and architects, chartered accountants and tax or legal advisers, and real-estate agents, from also acting as a broker.

The financial guarantee is set out at Articles 524 to 528: every general agent, broker or brokerage firm must at all times be able to show a financial guarantee resulting only from a surety undertaking given by an authorised credit institution or an approved insurer. Article 525 fixes its minimum amount at 10,000,000 FCFA, or, if higher, twice the average monthly amount of client funds the intermediary handled over the twelve months preceding the guarantee's taking out or renewal — counting all funds entrusted to be paid on to insurers or back to policyholders. The guarantee runs by calendar year, renews tacitly on 1 January, and under Article 527 is called simply on proof that the guaranteed intermediary has defaulted, with no benefit of discussion available to the guarantor. Articles 537 to 540 then impose the separate professional liability contract: every broker or brokerage firm must at all times be able to show a contract covering the financial consequences of its own professional civil liability, with cover of at least 10,000,000 FCFA per claim and per year, a deductible capped at 20% of the indemnity due and unenforceable against victims, extended reporting for twelve months after expiry for facts arising during the policy period, and a compulsory mention on the broker's professional documents of “garantie financière et assurance de responsabilité civile professionnelle conformes aux articles 524 et 538 du Code des assurances.” Breach of the licensing conditions of Articles 501 to 508 is sanctioned under Article 545 by a fine of 500,000 to 1,500,000 FCFA, extending to whoever let an unqualified person solicit business under their authority.