Deputy Governor Ngwira Commends MEFMI for FPC Workshop

MEFMI is conducting a ten (10) day regional Training of Trainers workshop on Best Practices in Monitoring and Analysis of Foreign Private Capital (FPC) in Lilongwe, Malawi. The workshop is being attended by 25 participants from ten (10) MEFMI countries. Of the 25 participants, 7 (28%) are female and 18 (72%) are male. The participants include economists and Information Technology (IT) experts. The objective of the workshop is to create a critical mass of experts in FPC management in the MEFMI region, on both the Business and the IT aspects of FPC monitoring and analysis. It is envisaged that the trained trainers will transfer the skills acquired to others in their respective institutions, countries, the MEFMI region, and beyond.

The workshop was officially opened by the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi, Dr. Naomi Ngwira on Tuesday, 5 May 2015. In her remarks, Dr. Ngwira commended MEFMI for conducting the workshop on FPC. She indicated that attracting FPC is top agenda in Africa and urged participants to have a bigger picture by going beyond the monitoring and analysis of FPC flows. She encouraged participants to focus on the management of FPC inflows, the types of capital flows to be attracted into the region, analyse the benefits and costs of FPC inflows, as well as the purpose of the capital flows in the region.

The Deputy Governor indicated that Africa is rich in natural resources and urged MEFMI countries to harness and transform the natural resources in the region into good use with an ultimate objective of increasing economic growth and reducing poverty in the MEFMI region. She indicated that Africa has growth potential, which needs to be exploited.

In terms of FPC data collection, she urged countries that are still using non-survey methods of collecting FPC data to move ahead and use enterprise survey methods, which is in line with developments in the region. She also urged participants to harness computer technology in FPC data collection, processing, analysis and dissemination. Finally, she urged countries to do more to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the MEFMI region, and that the FDI should have impact.