Dr Bernard GOUMOU, 41 years old and 19 years of managerial experience in various business sectors (Audit consulting, mining, industry, insurance and finance). He specializes in Risk Management, Corporate Finance and CCA (Accounting-Control and Audit). Born September 8, 1980 in Abidjan, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, son of Michel GOUMOU and late Seny-born KOUROUMA.
The third-ranking son of a family of seven (7) children, he is married and the father of four (4) children. He began his studies in Côte d’Ivoire and was admitted to the CEPE (Certificate of Primary and Elementary Studies) and to the entrance examination in 6th grade in 1989 at the Ecole Primaire Public Ouest 1 in Abobo. He returned to Guinea with his father to continue his secondary studies. He enrolled at the College of Lola where he obtained his BEPC (Brevet d’études du premier cycle) in 1996 then at the Lycée de Lola where he obtained his Baccalaureate 1st and 2nd part. A brilliant student and always top of his class since primary school, he ranked 5th in the Republic in the Baccalaureate option Experimental Sciences in 1999.
Guinea grants him a scholarship for higher studies for Morocco. In the Kingdom of Morocco, he is enrolled at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, ENCG, National School of Commerce and Management, in Settat. During this training, he will successively carry out several internships, first at the National Office of Electricity of Morocco (June-July 2001), then at the accounting firm Ahmed BARRADI in (June-July 2002) and to the ACECA Assurances Group of Morocco in (January-February 2003). He graduated from this prestigious business school with an option in Management Sciences and Specialty: Financial and Accounting Management. After his studies in Morocco, he returned directly to Guinea to serve his country. He was immediately recruited in September 2003 by the large audit firm, Fiduciaire de Guinée, a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers. At the firm, he chained several audit missions and in various fields (Mines, Banks, industries, services,).
Because of the quality of his work, he was noticed by one of the firm’s clients, Société Minière de Dinguiraye (SMD), which sought his services and assigned him, in September 2004, to the position of Senior Accountant in the Financial Department. He will also assist the Chief Financial Officer in several tasks as an assistant. From August to December 2007, he was sent by the SMD to the Center of Languages and Professional Studies (CELPS) in Accra, Ghana to improve his English. He will return with his “Certificate Intermediate in English”. He will remain within the SMD as Senior Accountant until September 2008 when he will submit his resignation to join his family in Conakry despite the insistence of his superiors to stay. He was approached in December 2008 by the company Ciments de Guinée (CDG) for a new position which had just been created, management controller.
He is the transmission belt of the company’s figures to the Holcim Group based in Spain. On the one hand, he must ensure control, compliance with standards, rules and the budget, and on the other hand the preparation of financial statements in accordance with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) which constitute the international financial information standards. intended to standardize the presentation of accounting data exchanged internationally. A lover of reading and teaching, alongside his work, he gave management control courses at the LANSANA Conté public university in Sonfonia-Conakry in (2009-2010). Following a call for applications, in October 2010 he joined the Guinean Union of Insurance and Reinsurance (UGAR) and La Guinéenne Vie (LGV) as Administrative and Financial Director.
When he joined UGAR, he registered as an arbitrator and consultant with the Chambre Arbitrale de Guinée (CAG) and was questioned on issues relating to finance, accounting and insurance. To strengthen his capacities, he also enrolled at the Higher Institute of IT and International Management (ISIG) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where he obtained a Master’s degree in Accounting, Control and Audit in (2011). Upon the arrival of the ACTIVA Assurances Group in the capital of UGAR and LGV; in January 2009, through his dedication and the various reforms carried out within his management, the young executive was immediately promoted to the position of Deputy Managing Director of UGAR Activa and Financial Advisor to the Managing Director of LGV, which became ACTIVA Vie.
To reinforce his function as a true insurer, he attends several training courses and seminars within major African reinsurance groups; Aveniré in Abidjan (August-September 2015) on the new rules for underwriting, prevention and pricing of business risks; Africaré in Abidjan (April 2016) on the technical and accounting bases of Reinsurance. To crown his experience and expertise in the field of insurance, he enrolled at the Ecole Supérieure des Assurances (ESA) in Paris-France where he obtained an MBA in Audit and Management of Risks and Business Insurance ( 2016). In February 2017, he left the ACTIVA Group to set up his own business and created his first insurance company. His vision is to build a Guinean financial empire in 20 years. He first created LANALA Assurances and became the Managing Director with twenty (21 employees).
LANALA was considered at the time to be the latest in insurance, but this ignored the ingenuity of its Managing Director. This competent, dynamic and calm young executive observes everything in his environment. To succeed, old practices in the insurance market in Guinea must be abandoned.
It will be part of the logic of digitization. LANALA Assurances under his leadership is already making the difference. It sets up a team of mobile insurance underwriters for all insurance needs, organizes a platform available to its customers to verify the authenticity of contracts, access to health insurance consumption costs in time real with the deployment of IT solutions and finally the declaration of claims and their follow-up in real time on the same platform. Just after a year in 2008, he created a second insurance company LANALA Assurances Vie.
To enable the financing of small projects, he embarked on microfinance and created the 3rd company, LANALA Finances in December 2020. To rise to the top and adopt an international standard, he created LANALA Holding to oversee the three (3) Institutions financial. He is a director in all these companies under his benevolent control. Nowadays nearly three hundred (300) people work there within the LANALA group with nearly one hundred (100) direct jobs and two hundred (200) advisers. Tireless for studies, at the post-graduate level, in 2017, when he launched his business, he enrolled at the Business Science Institute, Witz -Luxembourg and at the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 IAE-France to prepare his (DBA ) Doctorate in Business Administration. He first obtained his certificate in Business Administration from the University of Technology Sydney-Australia (2019), the equivalent of a research master’s degree. He will finally defend his thesis and will obtain, on September 30, 2020, the degree of Doctor in Business Administration under the direction of Pr. Jean-Pierre HELFER, IAE Sorbonne Business School, University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne. This research entitled “The behavior of farms in the face of risks and prospects for insurance coverage: the case of family farms in Guinea” is based on a large survey carried out in 2019, among 1,200 households in the four (4) major regions. natural resources of Guinea. It aims to strengthen managerial practices by providing them with reliable, relevant and comprehensive reference information on how farmers perceive and react to risks. It also makes it possible to establish a typology of agricultural risks and useful operators, as much for consolidating the development of the agricultural sector, as for the establishment of an economically acceptable and efficient agricultural insurance system in Guinea. In terms of academic contribution, Dr. Bernard GOUMOU contributed to the book “Rooted research in management: New contexts and new perspectives in Africa Emmanuel Kamdem, Françoise Chevalier, Marielle A. Payaud, Éditions EMS 2020, Business Science Institute. On the good use of quantitative methods for management research rooted in Africa”.
Dr GOUMOU is also ”local Expert Guinea – Enabling the business of Agriculture”. He participated in the preparation of the World Bank’s 2019 Report on Agricultural Activity in Guinea. In his life as an insurer, Dr GOUMOU occupied from May 2018 to May 2021, the position of Vice-President of the Professional Association of Guinean Insurers (APAG), in charge of development strategies, the animation of technical commissions and external relations. In parallel to his function as vice-president, he assumed the presidencies of the commissions unification of insurance certificates of insurance companies and the establishment of the obligation of insurance transport of goods intended for import into Guinea. . These occupations within the association of insurers, allowed him to carry out the following reforms for the profession: ·The reform of the General Secretariat resulting in the rejuvenation and revitalization of the staff, the computerization of accounting management, the training of workers. · The creation of a financial system “single certification and systematization of the ECOWAS Brown card” which has resulted in stable and sustainable sources of revenue for the operation of the institutions of the insurance market in Guinea.
Facilitation with government authorities, the decision and the decree of the application of the obligation of insurance of goods on importation. · Providing APAG with a platform for entering transport contract subscription operations (consultation windows open to all partners, namely the State, customers and the BCRG). ·State support in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, as Chairman of the commission set up by insurers for this purpose.
Representation of insurers with state and private institutions in Guinea. In terms of prizes awarded, on its leadership, the company LANALA receives the prize for the most efficient and competitive company in Guinea in the insurance sector in 2018 and personally, Dr GOUMOU obtained from COPE Guinea in December 2019 the 2019 Guinean Economy Gold Champion Prize. As a Guinean, Dr. Goumou fights to support any initiative that will build a republican legal framework allowing the development of Guinea both economically and socially. through growth, and the establishment of controlled economic mechanisms, such as the system of assigning unique identification to each citizen, an equitable redistribution of wealth allowing the development of Guineans through easy access to health (the universal health insurance), hygiene, education, decent food and social protection.
Transmitted by the Government Communication Unit