WAIFEM 5-day regional course on PFM underway

West African Institute for Economic and Management (WAIFEM) on Monday started its regional course in the country on Public Finance Management (PFM), Debt, Budgeting, Planning and Performance.

At the opening ceremony held at a local hotel in Kololi, Dr. Baba Yusuf Musa, the director general of WAIFEM explained that the institution has successfully executed 756 courses, workshops and seminars; adding that about 20, 260 participants from the sub-region and beyond benefited from these courses.

He added that WAIFEM has become a strong pillar for capacity building in the areas of macroeconomic management, public debt management and financial sector management.

“To ensure high quality in the delivery of our training programmes, the institute partners with reputable international institutions for much needed synergy. We have built up collaborative arrangements with a list of institutions.”

According to him, PFM is foundation to achieving development objectives and reducing poverty.

The 2nd deputy governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia, Essa Drammeh, highlighted the relevance and timeliness of the course, saying it couldn’t be overstated.

He added that it is a direct result of several international declarations of the Paris Declaration 2005, the Accra Agenda for Action 2008, and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation 2011, requiring countries to strengthen their Public Financial Management (PFM) systems and commit development partners to increase the amount of external assistance that flows through their PFM systems.

“As you will learn in this course, public finance is at the heart of everything we do as central bankers, because fiscal balance is an important driver of key macroeconomic variables that is of great importance to central banks.”

On the importance of capacity building and PMF debt and budget institutions, he reiterated that PFM systems, include all components of a country’s

budgeting process in both upstream (including strategic planning, medium term expenditure framework, annual budgeting) among others.

In his concluding remarks, he stated that the centerpiece of good governance is effective public resource management, which requires transparency and accountability.