How UK-IFoA accreditation will close Nigeria’s actuarial gap

Nigeria has need for qualified actuaries to serve the various arms of the financial services industry particularly insurance. This has become more demanding since recent policies on IFRS 17, as well as new annuity guidelines recently announced by the regulator.

To close this gap in Nigeria, expert says the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), which is the professional body for actuaries in the UK, could facilitate the development of actuarial profession in Nigeria.

Pius Apere, actuarial scientist/ chartered Insurer commenting on the development said IFoA UK accreditation is a rare opportunity for Nigeria, which needs to be fully supported, not only by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and Insurance Industry, but also by the Federal and State Governments.

This is including Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to ensure an adequate funding and sensitisation of the training of actuarial professionals over the medium term, Apere said.

Apere, who is also chairman/CEO Achor Actuarial Services Limited said in January 2024, University of Lagos in partnership with NAS, achieved the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) UK accreditation for its Postgraduate M.Sc. degree programme in Actuarial Science, as a pathway to IFoA qualification.

“This will provide successful students with six exemptions from the IFoA qualifications. This could be the fastest and cost-effective route for NAS to develop common qualifications and increase its qualified actuaries in the medium term. This is like the route the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) took in collaboration with CII London before conducting their own examinations in the early 1990s.

According to Apere, the shortage of actuaries in Nigeria will be exacerbated further (with only nine qualified actuaries registered in NAS out of its over 71 membership) if NAICOM’s circular on annuity is fully implemented.

“The circular implies that the qualified actuaries from the foreign countries (e.g. South Africa, Kenya etc.) who had been working for Nigeria financial sector (e.g. during the recent implementation of IFRS 17) will need to register with NAS before they can practice in Nigeria.”

“It is obvious that the foreign actuaries are working for actuarial consultancy firms abroad and they were only seconded to work for the Nigerian insurance companies on behalf of their foreign firms.”

“These foreign actuaries may not be readily available for the Nigeria market any longer since NAS will only register actuaries and not the consultancy firms.

“Some NAS’ actuaries are already retired or near retirement; while NAS’ actuaries are already engaged with companies or actuarial consultants in Nigeria, So, how many of them will accept to leave their current employment to join the insurance companies.

“The circular requires companies to recruit actuaries on a permanent basis, the cost of which is too high when recruiting from abroad, while the NAS’ associate members are also very limited in number.

Nigerian Actuarial Society (NAS) is the premier Nigerian actuarial professional body established in 1986, which has not developed capacity to qualify actuaries by examinations but have criteria of admitting members into the society (having five classes of membership, namely Student, Analyst, Associate, Fellow and Honorary).

The qualified actuaries got their qualifications from different professional bodies abroad and the students are not writing a common standard of examination conducted by one professional body abroad.

NAICOM had also called on “NAS to lead the way in shaping the future of the Nigerian insurance industry” during 2024, Annual Insurance Industry Conference held on 26th June 2024.

This is an acknowledgement of NAS’ pivotal role of self-regulation of its actuaries, which is a welcome development.

This is reflected in NAICOM recent circular on annuity underwriting effective 1st February 2025, which directed life insurance companies to have at least one qualified actuary responsible for Assets-Liability Matching (ALM) analysis and implementation.