Talabi Braithwaite

Talabi Adebayo Braithwaite was born on July 2nd, 1928, in Lagos State, Nigeria. He was a Doyen of Insurance.

Talabi Braithwaite Age

Talabi Braithwaite would have been 96 years old, if he were alive today. May his soul rest in peace.

Talabi Braithwaite Early Life

Talabi was born into a family of many firsts, the Braithwaite family in Lagos. In 1880, Rev. I. Braithwaite led the first Anglican missionary expedition, which introduced the gospel to the Ijebu province in today’s Ogun State. In 1894, the reverend built St. Michael’s, the first church in Epe in today’s Lagos State, after which his efforts led to the growth of church attendance. There is now a second Anglican church – the Reverend Braithwaite Memorial Anglican Church – named after him in Papa Epe.

Talabi attended the CMS Grammar School, Lagos and in 1946 obtained a first grade Senior Cambridge Certificate with exemption from London Matriculation. In 1949 he travelled to London where he gained experience in general insurance at the Royal Exchange, London. He was the first African to pass the examination to become an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, London in 1951.

Talabi Braithwaite Career

Talabi was one of the pioneers of the insurance industry in Africa. In fact, he emerged the first chartered insurer from Africa when he became an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of London in 1951. He set up T.A. Braithwaite (Insurance Brokers) & Co. Ltd. in April 1958, the first indigenous insurance broking company in Nigeria.

Regarded as one of Nigeria’s youngest businessmen of his time, Braithwaite left a British insurance company to found a firm that would write life insurance on Nigerians which the British underwriters avoided like the plague. So successful was he that his African Alliance Insurance Co. Ltd occupied a six-storey office and had 300 bush-beating agents. Braithwaite lived in an elegant house in Ikoyi.

Braithwaite, in 1960, advised the government of the Western Region as a risk consultant when it formed the Great Nigeria Insurance Company. Between 1963 and 1966, he served as the first indigenous president of the Insurance Institute of Nigeria. He was also first president of the Nigerian Corporation of Insurance Brokers for 16 years, starting in 1963. In 1969, he became an underwriting member of Lloyd’s of London, and from 1970 he started underwriting on the Merrett Syndicate.

Talabi Braithwaite Personal Life

Talabi was married to Mrs. Rosetta Adebisi Braithwaite. She worked briefly in Inland Revenue, then proceeded to London where she read law and was called to Bar in Middle Temple Inn of Court London in February 1959. They had five children and several grandchildren. Talabi died on May 2nd, 2011, in London, UK. His wife died two years later in May 2013. His daughter, Mrs. Derin Disu, was a former Chairman of Lagos Island Local Government.

Talabi Braithwaite Awards

He was conferred with a National Award of the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Talabi Braithwaite Net Worth

His net worth is not available.

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