The
West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) has opened
a 10-day regional course on liquidity management and forecasting in Banjul on
Tuesday.
The
forum brought together different participants from five countries, namely: The
Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia and it is underway at Djembe Beach
Hotel in Kololi.
The
international forum aims to expose participants to liquidity management and the
risks associated with it and how to mitigate its risks.
WAIFEM
was established by the Central Bank of The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and
Sierra Leone in 1996, principally to build capacity to improve macroeconomic
and financial management in the constitute member countries.
In
his welcoming remarks, the Director of Macroeconomic Management at WAIFEM,
Chris Kedze, expressed gratitude to the government of The Gambia for accepting
their partnership to conduct the training in The Gambia.
He
recalled that WAIFEM was established in 1996, with the aim to build capacity of
the joined countries to improve macroeconomic and financial management in the
constitute member countries.
He
added that since its inception, the institute has successfully executed over
590 capacity interventions in pursuit of its mandate and these have benefited a
total of over 16,086 participants from the sub-region and beyond.
According
to Mr Kedze, WAIFEM has established collaboration with a number of reputable
institutions to ensure high and international standards in its programmes.
He
said this includes the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank,
Commonwealth Secretariat and Debt Relief International.
The
2nd deputy governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia, Essa Drammeh, said
central banks implement monetary policy through the control of the level of
liquidity that is consistent with a non-inflationary output growth.
He
said liquidity management entails the management of central banks’ balance
sheets through monetary operations to steer monetary and liquidity conditions
towards the attainment of the targets for inflation.
“This
is critical because the higher the volatility in monetary or liquidity
conditions, the higher the costs of liquidity management, hence the more
difficult the achievement of the objectives of monetary policy,” he said.
He
further said that liquidity forecasting involves the balance sheet of the
central bank. Residually, he added, a central bank can judge the scope of its
market interventions in order to maintain the appropriate level of liquidity in
the economy.
“We
continue to count on WAIFEM for building the capacity of technical staff in
their critical areas of macroeconomic management. I assure you that this team
of experts has been assembled to facilitate the course and I urge you to
participate well to enhance your knowledge and skills by freely interacting
with them,” he emphasized.
