GAD Comment - Zooming in from Zambia
Published 3 January 2019
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Government Actuary’s Department building client expertise
The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) has been working with Zambia’s National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) for over a decade. NAPSA provides a social security scheme (the NPS) for around 800,000 people in the public and private sectors in Zambia.
Working with GAD
Patrick Chabwe and Albert Mwila, are officials from the NAPSA team based in Lusaka and they visited GAD to find out more about the actuarial analysis we produce to help them manage the scheme.
During the time GAD have been working with NAPSA there have been several actuarial valuations of NPS, which have been presented in Zambia as Patrick explains: “Once the report is done our main contact usually comes to Zambia for a day or so to present the results to the Board of Trustees. As you can imagine, that is a very short time for us to try to understand how calculations were done and how the results were determined.”
This time however we have been able to improve the working relationship through Patrick and Albert’s visit to GAD. Patrick noted that “It’s been really useful being here because we’ve been talking to the GAD team about the data and models, assumptions and principal results from the valuation itself. It has meant that we get to understand more clearly how the model works. So, it has a lot of value to us because, as we are part of the actuarial team at NAPSA, we have to communicate the report to the management board.”
Valuable addition
During the visit, GAD experts have also been on hand to cover other issues such as the impact of climate change on pension schemes. Patrick commented: “This was not something we are familiar with but it was really interesting, especially as this is something that affects us and will probably become increasingly critical in the future.”
In all, the 2-man team found the close working with GAD invaluable and they plan to recommend it on their return to Zambia. Patrick again: “It has worked well. It is different when you receive an email and you read the results. Now we are able to break it down and the translation of these numbers becomes easier as we have a more complete understanding of them. We can talk to people without phone calls or email and this personalised experience has been invaluable.”