Insurance industry lacks ‘specified officers’

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

There is a huge shortage of ‘Specified Officers’ for the insurance industry in Sri Lanka which needs to be addressed immediately, Sri Lanka Insurance Association President Ramal Jasinghe told Daily News Business.

He said that there are 18 insurance companies in the country but there is only one specified officer, who is qualified to serve in all the insurance companies. As a result a number of insurance companies pay a minimum of Rs 2 million at one time to hire the services of foreign expertise.

Jasinghe said the insurance industry is expanding fast in the country and the industry is expecting the arrival of 18 new companies within the next four years. There is a huge potential and new opportunities in this field and it is a lucrative employment where one could get US $ 1,800 per day’s work. As such, the basic needs required to train people must be fulfilled early.

Jasinghe appreciated that UWU designed a curriculum and a strategy for an Actuarial Science Diploma level course required as a preliminary measure paving the way for the future generation. It was a result of the request made by SLIA in 2008. Five students out of 12 who followed the course successfully will pass out in Colombo at the end of this month. “It is a tough course but students must be educated and motivated to choose it because the future will be very good for them. Jobs are available for them locally and globally at very high salary scales where the country could not only earn but also save foreign exchange.

UWU Vice Chancellor Chandra Embuldeniya said that finding lecturers for the course itself was a huge challenge and it will be necessary to obtain the services of foreign lecturers when upgrading this course to undergraduate level. He hoped to develop a Strategy up to Masters level course on Actuarial Science in the future.

Sri Lanka could export these services in the future rather than exporting cheap labour, he said.