Simba Chinyani (left) of SolveCo South Africa visited Windhoek for the official market introduction of SolveCo Namibia. Celebrating with him is Martinuz Fabianus of Retirement Fund Solutions.
Windhoek is seen as the base from which a South African actuarial firm plans to expand into other African jurisdictions.
Megan Cronjé (left), is a director of the new actuarial company SolveCo with her colleague and Managing Director Mia Geringer, a qualified actuary.
After an assessment of the availability, accuracy and independence of data prepared by analysts for local users in financial services, SolveCo South Africa decided to establish a presence in Windhoek. The official launch was last week. SolveCo Namibia, the first international branch of South African company, SolveCo, identified the biggest gap in the Namibian financial services industry to be the general lack of independence by those entities tasked with overseeing the accuracy of consumers’ data. In a statement released after the official launch, SolveCo Namibia said the Windhoek office will serve as the planned African head office for SolveCo. SolveCo is an independent actuarial consulting firm that provides services in all actuarial fields; Pensions, Medical Funds, Life and Short-term insurance. Managing Director and qualified actuary, Mia Geringer and Director Megan Cronjé hosted the event at the Hilton Hotel. Currently they are the only staff members but they are in the process of interviewing and setting up contracts for local appointments. “The aim is to become a truly Namibian company, employing Namibian specialists, as soon as possible” the duo said. SolveCo Namibia is specifically interested in providing services to the pension fund market where they plan to add value by being an independent actuarial company. They can assist with all types of ad-hoc calculations as well as doing annual or triannual valuations and reviews. SolveCo Namibia is in the process of developing an accredited trustee training syllabus and intends to start training by the middle of 2015. The women said Namibia has an acute shortage of actuaries, and especially independent actuaries. “SolveCo Namibia would like to contribute to the growth of the actuarial industry in Namibia and train actuarial students.” SolveCo Namibia has been contracted by Namibian businesses and pension funds since 2008. Some of their past and current clients include ISG Risk Services, Namcor Pension Fund and Sanlam Namibia. They are also busy with a new project in Botswana. “SolveCo Namibia will continue to rely largely on its South African head office while it actively strives to become a self-sustained and independent Namibian entity with Namibian employees.” The firm has established its own website at www.solveco.na.
