Fred Waswa is the Group Chief Executive of Octagon Africa Financial Services Limited.

Fred Waswa is a man who has managed to beat the odds and turned the lemons that life dealt him into lemonade.

After losing his dad at 14 Waswa was forced to start fending for his family at an early age.He had to support his eight siblings which wasn’t easy for a school going 14year old,fast forward to today he is one of the most successful business owners and CEOs.

Waswa was actually convinced to pursue actuarial science when his maths teacher realized that he was gifted in mathematics. Once he enrolled in campus Waswa pursued mathematics with a major in statistics which he excelled in very well.

He then proceeded to take on the pension industry by storm, excelling in all his duties.He started working for Fidelity Shield Insurance his boss then told him he was too bright for the job and helped him move to Aon Minet.

In 2016, Waswa founded the Institute of Pension Management to offer training in terms of capacity building for trustees on financial literacy but also for the graduates of actuarial science who knew little about pensions. His company Octagon now offers professional and corporate programmes for employees of different organisations.

Octagon currently stands at a market capitalisation of Ksh 100 billion with 200 corporates under management.