Fact file: Tafadzwa Chiduza

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Chiduza is founder and managing director of Claxon Actuaries (private) limited

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prior to Claxon Actuaries, he held senior management positions for consultancy firms in Zimbabwe and South Africa spanning over 10 years.

•iFRS17

He is a lead project actuary for numerous

projects in the African space covering Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Swaziland and Malawi.

Beyond Africa, he also assist on iFRS17 pro•jects

in the Middle-East looking at insurers

manner.

MC: So, what setbacks are you expecting as you go through this process?

TC: Implementing a Bill is not an easy, fly by night exercise. The research that goes into it has to be thorough and encompassing. This includes considering feedback from all stakeholders as part of the consultative process.

The Bill has been in the making for over five years now. I took office as ASZ president midstream. The real setback is that energy levels deplete. Some volunteers assisting the process migrate to different countries, and new implementers come on board. Continuity of the process suffers. However, it is our hope that we continue with the drive and one day have an outcome that is positive and welcome by our membership and wider stakeholders who are the consumers of our services.

MC: Your sector will soon embrace new international financial reporting standards known as IFRS 17. There are already indications that implementation of the in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Armenia.

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He works with numerous iFRS 17 system vendors including oracle, MBE and Green 13.

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Chiduza is a qualified Actuary and Enterprise Risk Management Actuary (FiA, CERA- both iFoA UK)

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Holds a first degree in Actuarial Science from Nust (Zimbabwe).

•Science

He holds a masters degree in Applied Data

and Artificial intelligence from DtSi (France)

standard could be a challenge. Please take us through the technicalities around this transformation?

TC: IFRS17 came into effect from the 1st of January 2023. It will succeed IFRS4, which was an interim standard. Now, IFRS17 focuses on measurement and recognition of insurance contracts within a company’s financial statements. Due to the sheer nature of IFRS17, which is transformative, implementation on the ground is indeed fraught with different challenges.

The difficulties range from skills redundancy, lack of appropriate information technology (IT) software, requisite data inputs, budgetary constraints and delayed implementation by affected entities. Some of them are now behind in terms of implementation, and they had to scrounge around to meet the deadline.

To smoothen the implementation process, we believe a good starting point will be having buy-in from the board of directors and senior management (of companies).