Atchison Actuarial Services Company (Private) Limited “Atchison” is a pan-African professional Actuarial Consultancy Firm based in Harare, offering Risk Advisory and Actuarial Solutions to businesses in Zimbabwe and the Region. Atchison provides Actuarial services to most of the Funds on our portfolio as well as other external entities. Atchison was incorporated in Zimbabwe in August 2009. Atchison has built a diversified portfolio of clients that range from pension funds, life companies, general insurance companies, healthcare insurance providers, non-governmental organisations and government institutions.
Atchison has in its partnership a very experienced Chief Actuary with over 25 years post qualification experience, a qualified consulting actuary, qualified Associate Actuaries, several actuarial specialists, trainees and an experienced executive management committee as well as a peer review actuary. Atchison’s actuaries have international exposure and have been involved in several consultancies across Africa and Europe
Some of the services offered by Atchison are as follows:
- Statutory Defined Benefit Actuarial Valuations, Defined Contribution Annual Financial Reviews, final and interim interest declarations, pension increases and calculation of benefits.
- Scheme benefits design and costing, scheme wind ups, conversion from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution.
- Setting up the Fund’s investment policy, developing investment benchmarks, monitoring performance, asset – liability modelling.
- Reserving, legislative compliance reviews, expense monitoring and management.
- Audit support for IFRS compliance
- Actuarial opinions on Mergers & Acquisitions
- Statutory Actuarial valuations and reserving
- Mortality investigations
- Reform of government pension schemes and social security funds
- Risk analytics in businesses including monitoring
- Financial reviews and fund return allocation
- Investment Policy and strategy
- Micro insurance product development
- IFRS17 training and implementation support
- Working with board committees on compliance
Recently Atchison has worked on a number of local and regional significant contracts whose recommendations are now at various levels of implementation. Some of these contracts include;
- ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT PENSION FUND Atchison undertook the actuarial valuation for the establishment of a funded Public Service Pension Fund for the Government of Zimbabwe. We successfully completed this exercise in a professional manner and submitted its report to cabinet in 2012. Atchison has provided the Government of Zimbabwe with unwavering post actuarial valuation support over the last five (5) leading to the launch of the Fund in January 2019. The launch was benchmarked on the Pathfinder document on modalities to launch the Fund prepared by Atchison in November 2018;
- MEFMI – FININSHED MORTALITY TABLE FOR UGANDA. After participating in and winning this international tender, that included international actuarial firms, Atchison undertook the mortality investigation for the Republic of Uganda as part of the 12 countries that Atchison under the banner of Comarton, was contracted to carry out mortality studies on behalf of the Macro-economic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI);
- NATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY AUTHORITY (NSSA) of Zimbabwe: Atchison undertook the actuarial valuation for the National Social Security Authority’s two schemes, that is; the Pension and Other Benefits Scheme and Accident Prevention and Workers Compensation Scheme. Atchison successfully completed this exercise in a professional manner and presented its findings in July 2017;
- SOUTHERN AFRICAN CONFEDERATION OF AGRICULTURAL UNIONS (SACAU) Atchison undertook the development of an actuarially modelled weather index-based insurance framework for the establishment of a weather based insurance fund for the Southern Africa Confederation of Agricultural Unions in 2018. Atchison successfully completed the assignment and the recommendations made are now at various stages of implementation.
- BOTSWANA PUBLIC OFFICERS PENSION FUND (BPOPF) Atchison undertook in 2016, an evaluation of the pension purchase factors to establish where economic factors (post the 2008 banking crisis) had impacted the amount of pensions bought by members retiring at different times and proffer possible solutions to the emerging differences.
Atchison has recently been recently been awarded the tender to conduct an Actuarial investigation into the conversion of the Zimbabwe Government Fund from the present Pay – As – You – Go arrangement basis to a funded Pension Scheme. Read more about Atchison.