Recently, the Actuarial Society of Makerere held an Actuarial Conference featuring a litany of prominent figures in the actuarial industry. The conference themed “Unlocking the future of Pension and the Insurance sector” aimed at engaging Actuarial Science students on real world practice of the Actuarial profession.
Badru Bengo, UIA Manager Life & Pensions urged the students to understand the actuarial profession well and set their sights beyond the usual insurance & pensions actuarial work by exploring roles like data science, solicit government’s interest in onboarding their skills of data-based prediction and support the National Planning Authority in exploring areas of mortality & life expectance. He called for collaboration with other professions to utilize the actuarial principals in their work.
Linah Ssebunya from Turaco Micro Insurance addressed the students on how actuarial professionals can apply themselves in other sectors. She said that actuaries have evolved from being number-crunching personnel to strategic advisors because data shapes what can be done in the future. Samuel Dickens Ogwang from Insurance Training College (ITC) noted that the insurance industry is growing rapidly and called on those who want to become certified insurance professionals to enroll for courses at ITC.
The Market Conduct Supervision Manager of Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) - Mark Straicus discussed Pensions highlighting that actuaries have always played the evaluation role for insurance & pensions. He advised the students to embrace technology and use it to make their practice easier & more relevant. He noted that NSSF only covers the formal sector while our nation is more than 75% informal, therefore encouraging insurance companies to bridge this gap by developing products to increase uptake.
Ernest Barusya, the Team Leader at Kenbright Uganda explained how actuaries serve the Insurance and Pension Sector and underscored the importance of actuarial work in the conversation of Uganda’s economic development. He noted that we’re not realizing significant growth in a number of sectors because actuaries are not being involved despite having the statistics to be used in shaping these sectors. He advised the aspiring actuaries to identify existing weaknesses in various industries and devise solutions that validate their relevance. Other presenters included: Actuarial Association of Uganda representative: Jenna Kalema & Atwine Ian from Afrisafe Insurance Brokers.
