Risk managers becoming more relevant in growing African market

The buzz around Africa appears to be continuing unabated. The prospect of major oil and gas finds throughout East Africa, together with the fast emerging middle class in many countries and a need for US, European and Asian firms to find new markets, has meant the enthusiasm for doing business in Africa looks unlikely to fade anytime soon.

For risk managers, this can be a tricky time. It can be hard to pour cold water on the CEO’s burning desire to forge ahead with ambitious plans and it can also be difficult to cope with investigating entirely new and often very foreign markets, says Commercial Risk Europe. However, this is also a good moment for the profession to stand up and be counted. Nothing is more likely to attract the board’s serious attention than some well-argued and rational reasoning that ultimately affects the bottom line in a positive way, Commercial Risk Europe stated.

And the boards are listening. In Africa itself, governments are beginning to demand physical evidence of good risk management—risk manager appointments are the first visible step in that. So across the continent demand is on the rise for well-educated and professional risk managers who are not just able to step in on the operational side of things but also be a helping hand in terms of enterprise risk management, able to add to the thinking of the firm’s strategic plans.

A word of warning comes from Kenya where insurers are concerned that clients are not paying premiums in a timely fashion and yet expecting claims to be paid—often before premiums have been received. Acting professionally is a cornerstone of driving standards up. Risk managers clearly have an important role to play here.

It is good to hear from the Insurance Institute of South Africa that it was among the first to be recognised as a professional body by the government and that it is planning a whole series of qualifications and training to add to its existing portfolio of options.

Better still comes news from the Institute of Risk Management in South Africa of its plans to add much more in the way of vocational training as it celebrates its 10th anniversary year. IRMSA is determined that risk management should be recognised as a serious profession and is equally determined standards should rise.

Its plans are not limited to South Africa but it is already engaging in both Namibia and Botswana with the hope of doing joint initiatives in the foreseeable future. Combine that with the increasing desire in east Africa for a risk management association designed to drive standards up and there is palpable evidence of a profession that is taking itself seriously—and being taken seriously by others.

It truly is an exciting time to be in Africa—not just as investors looking for opportunities but for the risk management profession too, which increasingly appear to stand up and be counted.