That was May of 2002. Three years later, with lots of babysitting provided by her husband, Sanja is a successful actuary, one of only a few in Macedonia, and the mother of an active little boy.

Sanja completed a degree in Mathematics from the University Sts Cyril and Methodius in Skopje. She read about a special training being provided by the Ministry of Finance in the newspaper. She wasn’t sure what an actuary was and she wasn’t sure she’d be allowed to apply since she was pregnant. But not only was she accepted in the program, a special schedule was set up allowing her to do the training over a longer period of time taking advantage of evening classes.

A soft-spoken woman with a shy smile, 28-year old Sanja doesn’t look the part of a maverick. But she stuck to her goal and it has paid off.

“I feel more fulfilled and accomplished as a person, everything I have been studying in theory I am now using in practice,” says Sanja. “I’m adding value to the profession.”

The training is just one of the elements of USAID's Financial Sector Technical Assistance Project which provides world-class professionals to Macedonian financial institutions to solve specific technical problems in central banking, commercial banking and capital markets.

Actuaries are experts who combine methods of mathematics, finance and statistics to forecast the likelihood of events and risks, such as fire, theft and automobile accidents. These calculations are vital to the operations of insurance companies who use them to determine the premiums charged for insurance policies and amounts of reserves to set aside. Macedonian insurance companies have not traditionally employed specialists in this field instead they outsourced actuarial services from a very limited number of experts who had obtained actuarial knowledge outside of Macedonia.

The USAID funded Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC) implemented this training and certification program for actuaries in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance.

Once Sanja completed the course it didn’t take her long to get a job. At her graduation ceremony she met a principal of Vardar Insurance Company who was in the process of setting up a new company which would trade in Macedonia. Within six months the new company was up and running with Sanja as its actuary.

Besides Sanja, nine others have been trained as actuaries. Together they have formed a local Actuary Society.

“We discuss the development of the profession,” says Sanja. “We’ve done a brochure explaining what we do and why it’s important.” A brochure, Sanja says which would have been useful for her when she first saw the ad in the newspaper and wondered exactly what an actuary was.
Besides supporting the insurance industry USAID through the FSVC is providing assistance to strengthen the Macedonian banking sector through enhancing the Bank Supervision, Anti Money Laundering and Risk Management functions of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia. FSVC is also assisting the Macedonian Securities Exchange Commission and Stock Exchange to develop the capital market through creation of investment and financial analysis skills among the capital market professionals and development of rules and procedures for the arbitration of trade-related disputes.