The creation of the pan-African reinsurer was intended to limit the outflow of foreign currency from Africa and promote the development of the insurance market there.

The Yaoundé Agreement[4] also encouraged any national African insurance and/or reinsurance institution to contribute to the company's capital.

In Africa, the obstacles facing the project were numerous, given the continent's lack of human and material resources and its political, economic, cultural and linguistic disparities.

[4] The ambition is to curb the outflow of foreign currency from the continent, mobilize local capital, create a reinsurance market and support African economic development.

In response to this situation, the Board of Directors decided in 1990 to increase the capital to US$30 million and to open it to African and foreign companies.

The establishment of a contact office in Johannesburg in 1995 gave the company access to the most important African insurance market, which remains its main source of business to this day.

In 2010, a subsidiary was created in Cairo to support the emerging development of Islamic reinsurance, the new company, Africa Retakaful,[15] operating mainly in the MENA region.

In 2011, a local office was set up[16] in Ethiopia in order to strengthen the company's presence in the strategic region of East Africa.

[34] This initiative follows a November 2013 board of directors' decision that allocated up to 2% of the annual net profit to CSR projects in the 41 member States.

The new entity, based in Mauritius and operational since January 2019, is responsible for managing the fund and ensuring the implementation of the various CSR projects.