HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK

My Scottish friend, team and house mate turns 19… huuuuuuuuuuuuuh, hip hip hip…

I first met Jack during our International Service training sessions in Tamale at GILLBT Guest house. On the day of their arrival from the UK, we were excited to receive them and looking forward to working with them though were not sure of their personalities but just hoping we could easily work together. On the Monday when the training officially started, everyone wore his name tag so we can identify ourselves easily.

The first time I saw Jack, the name reminded me of the author of a book my dad had been reading sometime in the past (can’t remember the title but the author is Jack Sin).

Jack lives in a small village on the outskirts of Edinburgh which is the capital city of Scotland. He is a high school graduate from Inverkeithing High and aiming to start a degree in law hopefully in 2015.

He is ruddy in complexion, about 1.7m tall, he has a well-trimmed beard and nice brown soft hair( I was trying to get the name I couldn't get it but I'm sure you’ll know it from the picture) He is an easy going young man, always wearing a smile and loves hanging out with friends and loves drawing as well. He has a quite strong Scottish accent (I can barely understand what he says, but I'm trying). He claims he loves food but amazingly one sachet of noodles makes him full, amazing, isn't it??

On his birthday, the team surprised him with a smock which he was so glad to receive and wore to work the same day, he looks so good in it with his skinny trousers (you can see that from

the picture_it was taken in the morning before work, at home). After the hard day’s work, He spent the evening with team members and friends from the International Service team members, it was nice day.

HAPPY SUPER DUPER B’DAY TO MY FRIEND, TEAM AND HOUSE MATE… HURRRRAAAAAAYYY!

HOUSE MATES (FROM LEFT): EMMANUEL, HANNAH, ALIMA, JACK, SHERIFFA & JESSIE

MY FIRST DAY AT RAINS OFFICE

I had so much engrossed with social activities I hadn’t thought about going to start work on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday). I woke up earlier t

han my alarm and did a few minutes’ personal devotion, reflection and planning for the day. I had not ironed all these while. I quickly called my landlord who had promised me of his iron and went for it as soon as he responded. I did my ironing for the week and returned the iron. As I got back to start taking my bath, I realized everyone else had finished and waiting for the bus. Omg. I had to rush through with what was left for me. At about 7:50am I was done and a lil bit confident to make breakfast for myself before leaving to work, so I did.

Hannah exclaimed a few minutes after I was done eating and I knew the bus was here. We were all excited to be picked from home, especially the Nationals (you know this is rare)

In less than ten minutes we got to the office (it’s not too far from the neighbourhood and not like Accra (the traffic)). Again we were very happy to see ourselves entering the building. It’s a cream painted building (it looks like a home from afar) with the inscription ‘RAINS’ boldly painted on top of the door. We were welcomed by the smiley receptionist (I latter on found that her name’s Ayisha) and another gentleman who was standing by her, who asked us to record some details (our names, reporting time and signature) in a notebook.

Right after that my eye flipped straight to the notice board that has a large format ‘flexy’ print portrait of Nelson Mandela, of blessed memory(shhhhhhhhh, I almost forgot… on top of the ‘RAINS’ inscription at the door post is ‘MANDELA DEVELOPMENT CENTRE’. I’m not sure he did put up the building but I think the founders of RAINS took some sort of inspirations from him; articles about RAINS and community development in general. One of the post that has the picture of a good looking young man caught my attention, I went ahead to read the story and it’s a sad one. Apparently, he was a project officer at rains and he’s been missing since 2011. My heart bled whilst reading the story. I went to the office to start the day, but went back to the receptionist, Ayisha (please don’t forget the name and her position b’cos, I’m sure I’ll be using her quite often in my story) to ask a few more questions about this young man and his ‘mysterious’ disappearance.

We got in to the office, it’s a very big and spacious room with 4 big tables packed together with a number of chairs (I didn’t count them because its basic algebra, I need to work some calculus, not that). The guys with their laptops there had already brought them out trying to connect to the Wi-Fi (they couldn’t until one of their staff came with the correct passcode. I connected too with my phone (my internet had not been working throughout the weekend, so I had hundreds of notifications as soon as I connected). Shortly, Natasha (my team leader) called to inform me (and to pass to the other group members) that, the taxi driver to pick them up is delaying so she’ll be late. That was fine. I had time to read all the messages that had flooded through my whatsapp inbox. I missed a lot of exciting live conversations especially the ones from the Singles’ Ministry from my home church.

In about twenty minutes, Natasha was here and work’s about starting. She first apologized for being late and next, she took us around the offices. Unfortunately we couldn’t meet a lot of the staff so we went back to our office and began our duty for the day. We started by reviewing the reports compiled by the previous cohorts on all the projects in groups. We went for lunch break and came back to brainstorm what our objectives for the projects should be. After several debates we came out with mission statements for all the projects (vis Safe Choices, School for Schooling and Farm for Futures).

BRAINSTORMING SESSION...FUN!

We then drew our activity time frame.

Just 3:40 Natasha received a mail from Emily (International Service programs manager) about the security plans for the program which we discussed briefly. 4:00 pm at the point all cables had been unplugged and the driver was waiting to take us home. I waited for about 3 minutes to discuss something else with Natasha and off to the wagon.

It was an exciting day and wishing it was a permanent placement. In less than 10 minutes we got home and I decided to write this at the expense of a movie I wanted to see ‘The Best Man Holiday’. I think I will see it later, or maybe never ‘cause, I’m enjoying this and may be doing it every day. Hope you enjoyed it too…

Ops… I didn’t talk about my lunch time, I ate one ball of Kenkey and freshened my breath with tom tom.

Young Actuaries' Series

There’s Hope for the Young Actuary Trainee (…RISK IS OPPORTUNITY)

 With great responsibilities

The question of who is an actuary has always been asked at various actuarial functions (seminars, conferences, lectures…) by several people. An actuary is a financial services professional who advises clients on financial matters which involve management of the risks of financial events in the future which cannot be predicted with certainty.

For one to be qualified as an actuary, he needs to pass at least 6 papers (depending on which organising institution). The courses on which students are examined include: Probability, theory of interest, life contingencies, and a couple of insurance, mathematics, statistics and business related knowledge. A prospective applicant must also have some knowledge in computer and ICT

 The number of actuaries globally is known to be relatively small. In the case of Ghana, it was known that there were less than 5 Ghanaian actuaries by 2010. All African countries with the exception of South Africa could boast of just a few hundreds of actuaries (including actuarial trainees). The forest of questions then begins to grow. Does it not pay? Is the profession too risky? Is demand for actuaries too low? Is the road to becoming an actuary too rough? Is their job not relevant? Among several others are questions these situations trigger.  But on the contrary, actuarial science was the number one ranked profession in the United State of America as of the year 2010 and this gives obvious evidence that there are good treasures embedded in the actuarial profession.

Actuaries are involved in a wide range of business activities. The primary areas of actuarial science application include life and general insurance (thus life, property, annuity, casualty…). Nevertheless, actuarial  profession can be described as one without boundaries in the business world since much of life is very uncertain and the actuary is interested in the uncertainties concerning events. This gives rise to the demand of the actuary from the banking through to the health sector.

The high standard of professional education needed to become an actuary has necessitated for relatively high standards of compensation for the profession. Naturally, salaries vary according to qualifications, ability, responsibility, experience, type of employer, geographical area of employment, and the supply and demand situation. In Ghana, as of 2011, the starting salary of a first degree actuarial science graduate ranged from GH¢8400 to GH¢18000 annually. Interestingly most business firms give merit increases to actuaries as they gain experience and pass examinations. Some companies also offer cash bonuses for each professional designation achieved which serves as a great motivation.

As of now one may be inquiring issues within the mind, finding answers to questions as where are the actuaries in Ghana? Good!

Currently (as of 2012), Ghana could boast of just few tens, qualified actuaries (actuaries with fellowship designate). There are three public universities in the country: UDS, KNUST, and UCC with one private university, PUC that runs Actuarial Science as a first degree programme.

There are also quite a number of insurance companies and other actuarial applicable areas that increase the hope of actuarial trainees who wish to seek for employment during and after their programmes.

The country is also in the pipeline establishing societies that would serve as regulatory bodies for actuarial related activities. Conferences, seminars are organized to unite actuaries and prospective actuaries and to enlighten and build up the interest of people aspiring to be actuaries.

A great challenge is then thrown to the young actuary trainee, considering the current state of actuarial science in our country: the number of fully qualified actuaries, the process of becoming an actuary- the examinations, accessibility of information- collaborations and coordination, and a few others.

The road to becoming an actuary, certainly is not as smooth as ‘Golden spark’, yet must be treaded upon to get there. The prospective actuary must be prepared and discipline himself to take all the actuarial exams organized by any of the internationally recognized actuarial bodies such as the Casualty Actuarial Society, the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries to become a fully qualify actuary. This takes a range of 4 to 10 years on the average.  

The strength of every society depends on its foundation. Days ago, in my quest to finding facts to questions on my mind, I resorted to popular and more reliable source- the internet, to know more about the state of actuarial science in Ghana where I shamefully discovered that the official website of the Actuarial Society of Ghana was last updated in 2007, as of Jan. 2012 and has little information about the society itself. As a springboard, this must be seen by the young actuaries as a challenge in restructuring the society and building a solid and reliable information system.

Insurance establishments in the country over the days have kept increasing faster than any other financial institution. However, less than 10% of all the insurance companies’ branches have actuarial department, or even actuarial staff. Most Ghanaian insurance outlet has been preoccupied by marketers instead of actuaries (at least actuarial trainees). The good news now is that, the National Insurance Commission is underway preparing legislations where each insurance company would have at least an actuarial trainee employee  or as a consultant to its company. This is going to be a great opportunity for the young actuarial trainee in that, there is going to be a high chance that he/she would receive a direct employment after school and would also have the opportunity to upgrading in his profession as he works. This is highly lucrative, but it also means the graduate (the actuarial rep. of the company) should be well equipped to meet the actuarial need of the company and be innovative enough to keep the particular company (branch) in business.

The last issue in this series is the issue of life table construction. It is unfortunate that we live in a country but  our premium calculations and determination is based on the studies of the lives of a cohort from other countries such as South Africa, Singapore, and other countries, when the conditions and the factors concerning life varies.