AS we enter the final quarter of the year, boardrooms and ministries across Zimbabwe are in “strategy season”.
This is when budgets are drawn, policies are shaped, and plans for the year ahead are set in motion. Yet in all the forecasts, models, and speeches, one crucial voice continues to be sidelined: the actuarial voice.
Actuaries are not just number-crunchers. They are risk specialists trained to anticipate uncertainty, model long-term outcomes, and design strategies that keep both institutions and nations resilient under stress.
In Zimbabwe, where inflation, currency volatility, and sanctions are daily realities, their expertise should be at the centre of decision-making.
Actuaries in public policy
When the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe sets interest rates or manages exchange rates, those decisions directly shape the value of pensions, insurance contracts, and household savings. Similarly, when the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion prepares budgets or adjusts fiscal policy, the sustainability of those choices depends on careful analysis of future risks.
In developed economies, central banks and regulators do not rely on economists alone, they also embed actuaries into their core teams. In the United Kingdom, actuaries at the Bank of England and the Prudential Regulation Authority conduct solvency assessments, stress-test insurers and safeguard pension systems.
In Canada and South Africa, actuaries sit within financial stability and supervisory units, ensuring households and institutions are protected against shocks. Zimbabwe must follow suit by establishing actuarial departments within the Reserve Bank and across ministries.
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Risk-based, forward-looking analysis should not be optional; it should be institutionalised.
Actuaries in corporate strategy
The private sector also misses out when actuaries are confined to compliance roles. Insurance companies and pension funds are, by their very nature, risk-based businesses.
Yet too often, the statutory actuary is only consulted after strategic decisions have already been made.
Every board meeting that discusses new product design, capital allocation, or investment policy should have the statutory actuary at the table. Without that input, companies risk insolvency, regulatory breaches, and loss of public trust. With it, they gain stability, innovation, and a stronger bond with the communities they serve.
From risk to resilience
Actuaries offer practical solutions beyond financial modelling. They can design inclusive micro-insurance for the informal sector, model the impact of droughts on food security, evaluate the long-term cost of healthcare and advise government on pension sustainability.
Their work protects pensioners, strengthens insurers and helps policymakers design safety nets that actually hold.
Zimbabwe is rich with actuarial talent, but it is underutilised.
The actuarial voice is not a luxury it is essential for building a country that can withstand shocks, protect livelihoods, and chart a confident future.
As strategy season unfolds, we must ask: can Zimbabwe really afford to leave its actuarial minds on the sidelines any longer?
Mashoko is a senior consulting actuary at African Actuarial Consultants. — [email protected]/ [email protected]/ +263 (242) 884 140/9.
