The Joys Of Actuarial Practice in Africa – And The Case for Claxon Actuaries

With data analytics, raw data is analysed to detect trends, answer questions, or draw conclusions from a large batch of data By Michael Tichareva Actuarial practice is not a commonly understood field to the general population around the world, with many myths around it. However, in Zimbabwe the actuarial profession has gained publicity and momentum over the years, with many Zimbabwean actuaries, probably more than 100, having qualified through the system over the past three decades. The pace to qualification has accelerated in recent years, so has the role of actuaries in business and society. The aim of Actuarial Practice is to use technical and business skills learnt in Actuarial Statistics, Actuarial Mathematics and Business subjects, and combining them with specialised business fields of insurance, pensions, investments, enterprise risk management, and banking among others, alongside tools such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve real world problems through application of judgment. To illustrate the field of actuarial practice, let’s use Claxon Actuaries, a young and growing actuarial firm based in Harare and Johannesburg, established by actuarial professionals who saw opportunities in specialised fields in the market, especially relating to emerging areas of actuarial practice such as banking