- November 5, 2018
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Current News
The MEFMI Combined Forum was successfully held at the Holiday Inn Bali Benoa in Indonesia on 9 October 2018. The event whose theme was Leveraging Africa’s Financial Resources was held in cooperation with the AFREXIMBANK. It was attended by Ministers of Finance, Permanent Secretaries of Finance and Governors of central banks in the MEFMI region. Also present were over 60 officials with diverse backgrounds and interests in macroeconomic issues.
At the event, AFREXIBANK unveiled some of its initiatives aimed to leverage opportunities on the continent. One such initiative is the Mansa Repository platform, which is ideal for conducting due diligence on African financial institutions and corporate entities to facilitate Intra African trade through improved flow of trade related information.
AFREXIBANK also presented its Central Bank Deposit Programme (CENDEP), a product that has been specifically designed to encourage African central banks to invest part of their reserves, currently invested in advanced economies, in the region in support of intra-African trade. The CENDEP also has a local currency funding programme, whose major objective is to assist businesses in the region to access finance for trade in local currency in order to reduce currency mismatches across the continent.
A related presentation on the changing global financial conditions over the period 2014 – 2018 and its potential implications for the African continent was particularly insightful.
In their discussions, the policymakers focused on the global economic environment, and the challenges it presents to the continent. They identified the increasing risk of debt distress arising from the ongoing normalization of monetary policy in advanced economies including monetary tightening which together with the weakening of local currencies are raising the debt servicing costs.. They resolved that authorities in Africa should pay more attention to developing and leveraging domestic debt markets.
For more information please contact Gladys Siwela, MEFMI Public Relations Manager
Email: gladys.siwela@mefmi.org
You can also follow us on twitter @mefmiorg