The first of its kind organised by the MDI, the training course themed: “Management Risk in Today’s Volatile Market”, drew participants from the banking and finance sector in The Gambia.
In his statement on the occasion, the Governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia, Amadou Colley, thanked and commended the management of MDI for the initiative.
He described the training course as very timely and essential in the banking industry, as it would improve the capacity of participants and enhance their performance in financial management.
“It is only through understanding of the risks associated in what we do and developing strategies that will enable us to achieve our objectives of the financial institutions, which is to add value to the network of the institutions,” the CBG Governor said.
According to Governor Colley, such training activities should be directed not only at the participants, but also at the entire Gambian citizenry, especially at those serving in corporate and public institutions.
“I have had several sessions with the President where he has expressed dissatisfaction at Gambians traveling out of the country to attend courses more often than two-day workshops as far as Ghana, among other countries, which is very expensive and costly to our economy,” Mr Colley said.
MDI coming up with this type of training course is something that should be taken seriously and worthy of emulation, he said, adding that the CBG is one institution that would support MDI at least in the form of participating in the institution and, where “our services are needed, in the form of acting as resource personnel”.
He encouraged MDI to be conducting more of such training sessions for the Gambian citizenry with resource persons from The Gambia, which would reduce costs to the country’s economy.
In her opening statement, the Director General of MDI, Dr Jainaba Kah, said the overarching agenda of the training course was to build capacities and competencies within the banking sector focusing on improved problem-solving skills, harnessing ICTs in innovative development of banking products and services, judicious use of increasingly scarce resources, managing risk, and ultimately optimizing profitability for shareholders while delivering excellent services and value for clients and the Gambian economy.
She said the training course was designed to give the participants the opportunity to brush up on the fundamentals of risk management, but most importantly it was meant to give them the opportunity to network, share experiences, best practices, and problem-solving to chart the best way forward in managing “our scarce financial resources and assets for the socio-economic development of our dear nation”.
“I am glad to report that we have worked tirelessly with the support of the Governor of the Central Bank and MDI to prepare a rigorous, multi-disciplinary training programme designed to augment your skill in risk management and strategy to enable you to function more effectively in initiating and sustaining progressive change in your banks,” she said.
This practical-based training exercise would offer a forum for interactive, experiential and intellectual networking of participants and resource persons on contemporary banking issues, and topics such as the global financial crisis, corporate governance structure-roles and responsibilities of risk management, capital adequacy and risk regulation and credit risk process, operations and liquidity risk, and trade and market risk, she added.
The training course, she added, would hopefully improve their financial acumen as an investment banker, and develop their strategy formulation, implementation abilities and business knowledge.
“I hope that this training would help how to change our banking practices for the socio-economic development of our nation, and to transform The Gambia into a financial and investment hub for the region given our relative peace, stability, security and the abundance of untapped investment opportunities,” Dr Kah stated.
