FRCN woos UNIBEN students with incentives to embrace study of Actuarial Science

As part of efforts to address the dearth of qualified professional actuaries in the country, the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) in conjunction with the Nigerian Actuarial Development Programme (NADP) has taken advocacy outreach to the University of Benin to woo students on the need to embrace the study of Actuarial Science.

The groups also wooed the students with mouth-watering incentives to encourage them to take to an Actuarial career by writing examinations that would qualify them as professional Actuaries as an Associate or Fellow.

The theme of the advocacy outreach was, ‘Building Capacity for Actuarial Excellence in Nigeria.’

Speaking at the outreach, Rabiu Olowo, executive secretary/CEO, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) lamented that out of the 273 universities in the country only eight are offering Actuarial Science.

Olowo also lamented that the country only has about 28 qualified Actuaries, while South Africa has about 1,967, noting that most of the qualified professionals are from South Africa and Kenya.

He said that out of the 28 qualified Actuaries in Nigeria, 23 are Fellows and five are associates.

According to him, “We are here today, under the Nigerian Actuarial Development Programme (NADP) which aligned with our vision at the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria to promote financial integrity, transparency and economic stability.

“We are here because the actuarial profession is in crisis. We are also here to sell to you an opportunity that would enable you to have a very good career in actuarial sciences.

“For your information, out of the over 273 universities in Nigeria, we just have about eight universities providing learning for Actuarial Sciences, and you are lucky because the University of Benin is one of the eight universities offering Actuarial Sciences in the country. But that is not the news, the news is that we want to give you more content.

“The reason I said that the Actuarial profession is in crisis is that we have about 28 qualified Actuaries in Nigeria. This tells us that there is a big challenge to the Nigerian economy, but it presents an opportunity for all of you.”

The Executive Secretary/CEO, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, however, attributed the low numbers of qualified professional in the field to lack of awareness.

He said that the outreach was to ensure that the body increased the number of qualified actuaries from the currently figure of 28 to about 100 in the next four years by catching the potential Actuaries young in the universities and encouraging others in the secondary schools.

He also said that the professionals were in high demand in the insurance, health, financial institutions and other sectors of the nation’s economy.

Olowo noted that Financial Registration Council of Nigeria (FRCN) is a Federal Government agency that is responsible for regulating the Accountancy profession, auditing profession, valuation, actuarial profession and corporate governance in Nigeria.

“Your services would be needed in the Insurance, banking, asset management, investment, health sectors to consider morbidity, mortality in order to make strategic underline decisions especially in the insurance industry, calculating the risks, assessing the risks and helping organisations to manage their risks,” he added.

He told the students that the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, has put programmes in place to support students who have interest to Actuary profession with learning support, scholarship to the best graduating student as well as many important learning opportunities.

“So, we offered a scholarship programme to the best of you and we will support those who have shown commitment because we want to make sure that we are supporting you right from now to throughout your career in the professional practices.

“We also offer an automatic joining of our graduate training programmes when you finish your study here at the University of Benin which is a pathway towards permanent employment,” he stated.

On his part, Ismaila Adeleke, a professor in the University of Lagos, described Actuary as a superhero, fortune tellers and trusted advisors.

Adeleke, who spoke on the topic, ‘Who are Actuaries?’ also described the professionals as good at calculating possibilities of unwarranted events to deploy expertise to guide and protect business organisations.

“Actuaries also put in place measures to reduce the possibilities of those risk events occurring.

“You can see the first classification of their job is to compute the possibilities of the event happening. And, now that they know they have put in place measures to reduce possibilities of its happening.

“Thirdly, if the event eventually occurs, Actuaries will design products that will mitigate against the effects of those risks and also help to set aside funds to compensate in case those risks occurred,” he stated.

While also describing Actuarial as a fruitful and global profession, he, however, urged the students to dominate the Actuarial world instead of the cybercrimes spaces.

Also Olasunkanmi Ayinde, in his speech, ‘The NADP: Vision, Objectives, and Opportunities for Students Speaker,’ noted that between the last two and three years nobody has qualified as a professional Actuary in the country.

Ayinde, head, Directorate of Actuarial Standards, FRC, reeled out some of the incentives the students who have interest in the profession would benefit from such as financial support for professional examinations.

Others are reduction of examination fees for candidates, assisted tutorials from experienced lecturers and practitioners, access to huge opportunities in the Actuarial world via FRC Telegram group, access to structured training and resources via Virtual class sessions.

He also listed internship and employment opportunities, access to latest publication and research materials from leading Actuarial bodies, localised content and guidance tailored for Nigerian students, among others.