The Team

The AADA team involved in establishing the academy includes a set of Promoters, who developed the concept of AADA and ensure that operational aspects are well established, and a set of Advisors, who ensure that there is broad and sufficient coverage across AADA’s intended scope. The team is backed by the Africa Task force of the International Actuarial Association (IAA), which provides input and support to the team as they establish AADA. With IAA backing comes the support of all international and African actuarial associations that are members of the IAA. 

There is a distinct lack of growth of the profession outside South Africa.  The challenges of growing the profession are exacerbated by the fact that the actuarial skill-set requires significant investment in time, exam support and on-the-job training in order to adequately develop a candidate to an experienced and qualified level. Many companies in Africa are yet to understand the amount of resources they need to invest to develop their actuarial talent, or don’t yet have the capacity to provide these resources. The qualified and experienced actuaries on the ground are too few to provide the needed training and mentorship to potential candidates without a coordinated effort or additional resources to help. In addition, due to the rigour and difficulty of the exams, the actuarial pathway to be qualified may take many years, often in the region of 5-10 or more years. It is rare to find a qualified actuary that passed all their exams on their first try, even in more developed economies.