By: Mustapha Jarju
The Government of The Gambia, through the Central Bank (CBG), on Thursday kicked start a two-day conference with Africa Bank Supervisors. The conference was held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre.
The conference that brought together the African Continent Bank delegates from 42 African countries was meant to contribute to ongoing efforts to strengthen banking regulatory and supervisory frameworks in Africa.
The 2nd Deputy Governor of Central Bank of The Gambia, Paul L. Mendy, giving his welcoming remark on behalf of the Governor of Central Bank, Buah Saidy, called on the delegates from across Africa to redouble their efforts towards the common goals of expanding trade between African nations.
He also called on the African Bank Supervisors to expand trade between nations, accelerate economic growth, and stabilize exchange rates, lower inflation, and promotion of macroeconomic stability.
“From the domestic perspective, the Gambia economy remains resilient, gradually showing signs of recovery. This is supported by modest rebounds in tourism and private-sector remittance inflows. Consequently, the economy is forecast to grow by 5.6 percent in 2023, which is higher than the 5.2 percent projected for 2022,” said the 2nd Deputy CBG.
He added that the seminar has come at a critical moment in history when the world is grappling with numerous challenges which include the effects of climate change, the Russian-Ukraine war, and the aftermath of covid-19 and its adverse effects on the economy.
Mr. Vasily Pozdlyshev, Senior Adviser Bank for International Settlement expressed his concern that in the next 3 years, the International Monetary Fund is expecting a surplus of about four trillion dollars from now till 2026.
Meanwhile, he added that Covid-19 was the worst thing that could happen to the world economy and some recently very notable jurisdictions are particular to the world financial market like deals headed up by US and Switzerland to financial stability reasons in other to resolve work stances.
“The Russia-Ukraine war is a major mitigation that helps African jurisdictions to boost their export to attract foreign investment.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Djoulassi Kokou Oloufade, Executive Secretary of the Association of African Central Banks emphasized the background information of CABS, noting that CABS was established as a pan-African platform for the exchange of experiences and good practices at the level of Bank Supervisors.
“Strategic objectives of CABS are to build supervisory capacity through the exchange of experience and creating programs, develop appropriate tools for supervision, promote memorandum of understanding between regulators to facilitate the exchange of information and coordinated supervision and help articulate African common position on global benching regulatory and supervisory reform,” he said.