Registration and certification in CFA professional course should be a top priority for business graduates.
Chartered Financial Analyst profession is the most marketable professional courses in the world. Over 10,000 people register for the course annually, where 80 percent of them fail as 20 percent proceed to the next level.
CFA has three levels, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3.Passing Level 1 is relatively easier but Level 2 always becomes a hard nut to crack for candidates who are ill prepared. In fact, 90 percent of Kenyans who had all the guts to pursue CFA ended up quitting after repeating Level 2 more than 3 times.
As much as it’s considered a challenging course, several Kenyans have successfully completed it without repeating even a single level. Example is the current Centum CEO James Mworia who completed all the three levels within the first three years. He is the most decorated CEO in the country and enjoys all the privileges that come with the corporate world.
In order to register for CFA you must either be a University graduate or a final year student in a top University. But it’s always advisable to start pursuing the course once you are through with college.
One of the challenges most Kenyans get is to find the money required to pursue CFA.Unlike CPA, registering for CFA requires one to have at least Ksh 40,000.To register and Pursue level 1 you must have at least Ksh 100,000.
To complete Level 1 to 3,a candidate must have at least 300,000.The money may go up depending on the exchange rates since the fees is paid in dollars.
In Kenya, Strathmore University and Oshwal College are the only institutions which offer quality training to CFA candidates. If you are ready for the course, you can visit the institutions and register or register online.
CFA Institute always sends reading list and notes to students who have registered. Once you have received them, make sure you go through all the sections since exams cover all the units indicted in the syllabus.
Level 1 examination has multiple choice questions, unlike other Levels where you have to answer questions based on your experience in the financial profession and what you have read in the notes provided.
CFA exams are done in June and December.A candidate can choose to sit for the June examination or December examination.However,in Kenya sometimes examination for a specific level can be done once a year.So,if you have registered for June examination and you find that no centre is allocated a slot then you have to either go to Egypt or South Africa to sit for the exam.
