Banjul hosts WAIFEM regional forum on liquidity management

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.