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Subscribe nowThe Inside Story: The Rule-Maker — How Jean Kacou Diagou Co-Wrote Africa's Insurance Rulebook, Then Built NSIA Into a 12-Country Empire in the Market He Regulated
Jean Kacou Diagou helped write the insurance rulebook for 14 African countries — then quit to compete in the market he'd regulated. From a €457,000 start in 1995 he built NSIA into a 12-country bank-insurance group. This week he pruned it, exiting Nigerian life insurance.
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The Inside Story: Two Fronts — How Patrice Motsepe Built a Mining Fortune and a Football Presidency, and the Week Both Came Under Pressure
In 1997 a young Johannesburg lawyer bought gold shafts the big miners were giving up. Today Patrice Motsepe runs African Rainbow Minerals and African football. This week both came under pressure: a lawsuit from his mining partner and unrest inside CAF. The man, and the two fronts.
The Inside Story: After Wigwe — How Herbert Wigwe Bought Access to the Top of Nigerian Banking, and What the Bank Has Become Without Him
In 2002 Herbert Wigwe and Aig Aig-Imoukhuede took over Access, then 65th of 89 Nigerian banks, and bought their way to the top. Since his death in February 2024 the shares have lagged every big rival. The story of the deal-maker, and of the bank he left behind.
The Inside Story: The Long Way Back — How Sudhir Ruparelia Was Expelled From Uganda at 16, Came Home With $25,000 and Built Its Largest Indigenous Bank
Expelled from Uganda at 16, Sudhir Ruparelia came home in 1985 with $25,000, opened the country's first licensed forex bureau and built its largest indigenous bank. Then the central bank took it over. As his London trial opens today, the story of the man and the bank.
The Inside Story: The Long Game — How Femi Otedola Rotated From Oil to Power to Banking and Took the Chair of Nigeria's Oldest Bank
Femi Otedola sold his oil business near its peak, built a power company worth more than ten times its listing value, then sold that too and put the money into Nigeria's oldest bank. Five years later he is its chairman and largest owner. The strategy behind his $815 million quarter.
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