FRC Partners Osadebey University to Promote Actuarial Studies in Nigeria

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

The Anwai campus of the Dennis Osadebey University Asaba (DOU) was a beehive on Wednesday as experts and academics from across the country brainstormed on modalities for addressing the yawning gap in supply of certified or professional Actuaries in Nigeria.

The event was part of the Nigerian Actuarial Development Programme (NADP) Advocacy Outreach, an initiative of the Financial Regulations Council (FRC) in Nigeria aimed at tackling the dearth of Actuarial Science graduates and professionals in the country.

The programme, which was targeted mainly at students in the Faculty of Management Sciences of the university, was attended by more than 500 students, including those of Actuarial Science Department and others, with the capacity of the Main Auditorium of DOA being outstripped by the enthusiastic students.

Speakers at the event included Titus O. Osawe, Coordinating Director, Directorate of Corporate Governance and Inspection and Monitoring Units of the FRC; Prof. Osmaila Adeleke of the University of Lagos; Dr. Martin Osawaru Omorodion of Elizade University, Ondo State; Mr. Olasunkanmi Ayinde, who heads FRC’s Directorate of Actuarial Standards, as well as Dr M.S. Ladan, the Head of Department of Actuarial Science, DOU Asaba; and, Prof. Irenius Nwaizugbo, Dean of Faculty of Management Sciences of DOU Asaba.

Head, Directorate of Actuarial Standards at the FRC, Mr. Olasunkanmi Ayinde, harped on the Council’s motivation for the NADP advocacy initiative, noting that unknown to most Nigerians qualified and certified Actuaries were in very short supply in Nigeria, including the Insurance Industry where only two professional actuaries exist to service more than 50 insurance companies in the country.

“Embrace, study Actuarial Science and bid good-bye to unemployment,” Ayinde charged the students, adding that similar opportunity was available for even lecturers and young graduates in social sciences, computer science and related disciplines who have a flair for mathematics and statistics.

Speaking on, “Mission of the Advocacy: Introduction to FRC and NADP,” Osawe defined and gave an elaborate explanation on what Actuaries as professionals do and why their services are so highly valued in both industrially advanced and developing countries like Nigeria.

However, the FRC has taken up the challenge of producing more actuaries in Nigeria through the creation of the NADP outreach to universities, adding that the Council was intent on complementing the programme through what he termed “backwards integration”, by extending the awareness campaign to secondary schools in Nigeria.

“You are in the right profession; so many employment opportunities are waiting for you because there is a market, and demand is very high”, Osawe told the students of Actuarial Science, adding that there were many juicy financial incentives also.

In a keynote titled, ‘What Are Actuaries?’ Adeleke noted that the profession took its roots from Bookkeeping hence the name Actuary derived from ‘Actuarium’, the Latin word for Bookkeeping.

It dwells on such issues as related to determining premium cost and evaluation in insurance and pension as well as protection of companies from predictable risks and indemnity calculation through precision methods, Adeleke explained.

Therefore, Actuaries often play the “Super Hero” role, beside being regarded as “Fortune-tellers” and “Advisors” due to the role actuaries play in determining important financial consequences, he emphasised.

In his presentation, Omorodion, who took the audience through the rudiments of qualifying for the relevant series of professional examination, allayed fears about the seeming difficulty experienced in learning mathematics, revealing that he personally attempted the examinations while studying mathematics on his own and without the assistance of a teacher.

Actuaries are definitely among the best paid professionals in the world, including in insurance, banking and international sports industry, but they are few despite the high demand for them because of very low awareness of the profession particularly in Nigeria, which today has just 19 in 2019 but requires over 2,550 practitioners, whereas South Africa which needs about 1,957 actuaries presently has more professionals than Nigeria.

In his opening remarks, Prof. Ben Oghojafor, Vice-Chancellor, Dennis Osadebey University Asaba, stressed that the university was upbeat in promoting Actuarial Science both as a degree and postgraduate or professional course of study in the institution.

He described as apt the theme of the NADP outreach programme, ‘Building Capacity for Actuarial Excellence’, adding that DOU was determined to help its “students and future leaders” chart a path of academic and post-training excellence that would give them the competitive edge in the society and even at the global stage.

Oghojafor stressed the need for students to stay focused on their studies, which is the essence of their entry into the university through the sacrifices of their parents, and to avoid being lured into bad company of those who indulged in hard drugs and other illegal substance abuse.

He commended the FRC for the NADP initiative, and for choosing the DOU for its resourceful and timely outreach especially considering the abysmally low level of awareness of the occupational value and high demand for Actuaries in Nigeria and the world over.