Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Al-Amoudi's Nyala Insurance tops $6 million in profit

Nyala Insurance, the Ethiopian insurer co-founded by Ethiopian-Saudi billionaire Mohammed Al-Amoudi, made more than 1 billion birr ($6.1 million) in profit in its latest financial year, as its paid-up capital passed 2 billion birr ($12.2 million).

The profit figure is unaudited, the Addis Ababa-based company said on Tuesday at an event marking its 30th anniversary. Total assets have risen above 7 billion birr ($42.7 million), Chief Executive Officer Yared Molla said. Nyala started operations in 1995 with paid-up capital of 7 million birr.

The results point to another year of strong growth. In the 2024-25 financial year, Nyala reported gross profit of 782.7 million birr, up from 641 million birr a year earlier, and premiums of more than 3 billion birr ($18.3 million), a 90% increase. Its total assets stood at 6.7 billion birr and its paid-up capital at 1.6 billion birr at the time. Profit of more than 1 billion birr would mean a rise of at least 28% from that level.

Shareholders backed an increase in the company's capital to 1.6 billion birr from 1.2 billion birr at an extraordinary general meeting in December. Nyala reported a return on equity of 23.3% for 2024-25, with shareholders' equity of 2.9 billion birr.

A new name for its branches

Molla used the anniversary to launch a new logo and a strategy the company calls "NISCO Reimagined," after the initials of Nyala Insurance Share Company. He said the plan goes beyond a change of look and covers customer service, technology, staff training and the way the company runs.

Nyala is turning its more than 50 branches into what it calls customer experience hubs, moving away from a model in which clients must visit an office to get things done. It has also started a claims concierge service meant to make it easier for clients to file and settle claims, and plans to upgrade its digital systems.

The company has more than 400 employees and has paid more than 1.7 billion birr ($10.4 million) in taxes over the past 15 years. It has insured the electromechanical works of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile and the civil works of the Koysha hydropower plant, two of Ethiopia's largest state projects. Molla said the next phase would focus on service quality, financial strength and expansion at home and abroad.

Sara Surur chairs Nyala's board. Molla has run the company since 2013 and was elected president of the African Insurance Organization last year.

Al-Amoudi's stake

Al-Amoudi, his family and companies linked to him were among Nyala's founding shareholders when Ethiopia opened insurance to private investors in the mid-1990s. Nyala started with six founding shareholders, and the number had grown to 66 by 2023. The company does not publish the size of each holder's stake, and Al-Amoudi's current holding is not public. His MIDROC group also holds shares in Dashen Bank, one of the country's largest private lenders.

Born in Dessie in northern Ethiopia to a Yemeni father and an Ethiopian mother, Al-Amoudi holds Saudi citizenship and is worth about $9.3 billion. He made his fortune in oil refining, construction and property in Saudi Arabia and Sweden.

In Ethiopia, he controls MIDROC Ethiopia, a group of dozens of companies in construction, real estate, mining, hotels, aviation, financial services, oil distribution and farming. His companies employ more than 70,000 people. MIDROC Gold, in which he owns 98%, is building a new gold processing plant in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region after the government suspended its Lege Dembi mine in 2018.

Nyala is not listed on a stock exchange. It is one of the founding investors in the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, which started trading in 2025, after agreeing in 2024 to buy 20 million birr of the bourse's shares.