The
West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM), in
collaboration with the Central Bank of The Gambia, yesterday commenced a
ten-day regional training course on economic and financial report writing
skills and presentation techniques.
The
training course, which runs from 5 to 14 September 2016 at the Paradise Suites
Hotel in Kololi, attracted participants from The Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone
and Ghana.
In
his welcome remarks, Ousman Sowe, WAIFEM’s Director of Financial Sector
Management Department, who represented the institution’s director general, said
the main objective of the course was to empower participants with the capacity
to communicate well, which is a powerful tool for job effectiveness.
He
said the special focus of the training course includes developing report
writers’ appreciation of the English language, and enhancing their competencies
to structure, write and present more effective economic, financial and other
reports.
He
gave an overview of WAIFEM, saying the institute was established on 22 July
1996 by the Central Banks of The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra
Leone, principally to strengthen capacity on a sustainable basis for
macroeconomic, debt and financial sector management in the countries of member
banks.
Mr
Sowe also dilated on the importance of effective communication in today’s
economic and business milieu and the need to keep abreast with global
developments, unprecedented changes and transformation in communication,
necessitating WAIFEM to add the training course to its menu of programmes in
2002.
Declaring
the regional course open, the Governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia,
Amadou Colley, said successful report writing requires professionalism,
in-depth knowledge of subjects discussed, concentration and exceptional writing
skills.
Often,
reports are written to inform, make proposals or recommendations for change
analyze and solve problems, present the findings of an investigation or project
and record progress.
“In
report writing, you must consider clarity, organisation, content and format and
take into consideration the in-house style of writing a report,” he said.
The
CBG Governor noted that a well written report that is poorly presented might
sends the wrong signal to the audience.
Therefore,
he added, effective presentation techniques entails the use of visual aids,
short presentation time, fewer bullet points on each slide and making the
presentation interesting by punctuating it with interesting, but relevant
stories.
“Most
managers may have the quantitative skills for policy formulation and analysis,
which in itself is not a sufficient tool in modern economic and financial
management,” he said.
It
was equally important for managers to sharpen their communication skills to
enable them pass information convincingly to the appropriate level of
decision-making, he noted.
Data
gathered, but not effectively communicated and utilised for decision-making
“are worthless”, he said.
