This paper presents the context and situation of the life insurance market in francophone sub-Saharan African countries. In general, the life insurance in the region revolves around three devices : the family and the community, private insurance institutions (CIMA market) and public institutions of the state (CIPRÉS market). The origin and the inventory of each of these three devices are shown in the first part. Then, in a second step, the study focuses on the device on the private insurance CIMA market. Thus, the second part presents the socioeconomic context of CIMA market and the third section presents the technical and commercial difficulties in the CIMA market. Both parties allow such problems to enter the CIMA market in context, and identify actions to remedy.