Jean Kacou Diagou was born in 1948 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and after earning a master's degree in economics from Félix Houphouët-Boigny University and a specialisation in insurance in Paris, began his career at UAP, rising through the ranks over two decades to become the company's chief executive for Africa.
In 1995, after helping negotiate the harmonisation of insurance law across francophone West and Central Africa and co-authoring the CIMA code that still governs the region's insurance markets, Diagou founded NSIA, believing there was room for a wholly African, transnational insurance operator.
NSIA expanded rapidly through the late 1990s and 2000s, and in 2006 Diagou led the negotiations that brought BIAO, Ivory Coast's oldest bank, under NSIA's control, pioneering the bank-insurance model in West Africa by integrating banking and insurance under a single roof.
By 2026 the NSIA Group operated across 12 countries in West and Central Africa, comprising more than 20 insurance subsidiaries, several banking arms, and an investment and asset management business, with Diagou's family holding a majority stake through Manzima Holding.
Diagou has served as President of the Ivorian Confederation of Enterprises and the West African Employers' Federation, and continues to compose religious music and play recreational football with childhood friends alongside running one of the region's largest financial groups.
- Founded NSIA Group, West Africa's first bank-insurance conglomerate
- Co-authored the CIMA code, unifying insurance regulation across 14 African nations
- Led the 2006 acquisition of BIAO, Ivory Coast's oldest bank
- President of the Ivorian Confederation of Enterprises (CGECI)
- President of the West African Employers' Federation (FOPAO)
- Regulatory work can be as valuable as building the company itself. Diagou's co-authoring of the CIMA code shaped an entire region's insurance industry, not just his own firm.
- A new model can outgrow the market it started in. The bank-insurance model NSIA pioneered in Ivory Coast has since expanded across 12 African countries.