Omega Ukama 
ZIMBABWEAN actuaries have been challenged to come up with solutions to economic problems being experienced in the country.
The country is facing its worst economic crisis in a decade, punctuated by fuel, electricity and foreign currency shortages, high unemployment rate, high trade and budget deficit and skyrocketing inflation among other things.
Loreen Makwanya, the Actuarial Society of Zimbabwe (ASZ) president, said it was critical for actuaries to help the country move forward.
“We need to influence the course of events as they happen, life should not be spent writing corrections. We need to build capacity to allow pro-activeness and thought leadership,” Makwanya said.
“The Actuarial Society is dealing with very difficult issues. Issues that no syllabus could have prepared us for, and require our deep analysis, imagination and collaboration to pull through.”
In 2008, pensions and savings in Zimbabwe were wiped out by an episode of hyperinflation, which was recorded as one of the worst in history.
This position was confirmed by the conversion of these balances from the Zimbabwe dollar — which was ditched after suffering value erosion due to the hyperinflation — to the United States dollar with policyholders and bank account holders retaining bare balances after the exercise.
And with official inflation having reached a ten year high of 97,9 percent for May from 2,7 twelve months ago, it is starting to look like the country is going down the same path as it did in 2008.
Makwanya told delegates attending the society’s fifth annual convention in Harare last week that actuaries needs to be proactive in solving the country’s well-documented economic ills.
“We are having to reflect on how we can solve the pensions, savings and protection crisis that we find ourselves in. Failure to resolve the problems in these industries will erode confidence in the savings industry for generations to come. A country that does not mobilize savings impacts its ability to develop economically,” she said.
Makwanya said the society was not only battling with the current problems but also the legacy hyperinflation issues of responding to the commission of inquiry findings.
“Most critically how should we be setting long-term assumptions with the level of volatility in this economy? What types of products work for an environment like ours, impact on different stakeholders, particularly policyholders and pension fund members,” she said.
A report by a commission of enquiry set up by former president Robert Mugabe to look into conversion of insurance and pension values from the Zimbabwe dollar to the United States dollar found that the ASZ had not regulated its members as expected, placing this obligation on external professional bodies such as the institute and Faculty of Actuaries of the United Kingdom.
“However, these bodies have no mechanisms for detecting malpractices or unprofessional conduct by their members in Zimbabwe,” the report read.
