Senegalese financier Pathe Dione, 81, died on Thursday 12 January in Paris, France, APA has learned from media sources.Very famous in the world of finance in Africa, the founder of the SUNU insurance group died on Thursday in France where he discovered the insurance business over 40 years ago. He passed away at the age of 81, leaving behind him a gigantic work for the insurance and banking sectors.

A former professor of mathematics, this doctor of economics founded the SUNU Group at the end of 1990 after having served as Director of Africa for the Union des Assurances de Paris (UAP). The SUNU Group has grown to include some 15 insurance companies in nine French-speaking African countries.

Six months before his death, Mr. Dione had bought more than 54 percent of the shares of the French BNP Paribas in the ‘Banque Internationale pour le Commerce et l’Industrie du Senegal’ (BICIS), making him the majority shareholder of this Senegalese bank subsidiary. For this acquisition, he “was in competition with Vista Bank Holding, owned by the Burkinabe businessman Simon Tiemtore,” the Senegalese news site IGFM recalls.