- August 30, 2023
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Current News, debt management
MEFMI conducted a joint regional workshop on Domestic Debt Issuance and Trading with the IMF from 29 May to 2 June 2023 in Arusha, Tanzania.
The official opening of the workshop was presided by Mr Japhet Justine, Commissioner, Debt Management, on behalf of Dr Natu Mwamba, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Planning in Tanzania. In his remarks, Mr Justine emphasised that developed domestic debt markets are one of the most efficient funding means for governments.
Mr. Justine underlined that the workshop was timely considering the existing environment where constrained external financing and funding requirements were elevated further by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. He encouraged officials to use the workshop to forge professional networks with peers from other countries to enable them to exchange diverse practical experiences and perspectives on debt management issues facing countries in the region.
The workshop was delivered through presentations and practical hands-on exercises and case studies. The practical exercises covered the valuation of Treasury Bills and Bonds, which helped participants to understand the concepts discussed during the presentations. Participants were organised in groups to work on a case study covering the benchmarking programme for a hypothetical economy. The case study emphasised the need for a well-defined strategy for building benchmarks and the use of liquidity management operations to augment the benchmark building programme.
The experiences of Namibia, Kenya, and Tanzania on: i) practices and challenges regarding issuance of bonds in the domestic market including important policy and operational considerations; ii) benchmark building programme and market leaders’ forum; and iii) lengthening the maturity profile of domestic debt, were presented and discussed. The experiences shared provided an opportunity for participants to learn from peer countries.
A total of 34 officials attended the workshop, of which, 26 were from MEFMI member countries namely: Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, while 4 were from Ethiopia and 4 from South Sudan. The participation of Ethiopia and South Sudan was funded by the IMF AFRITAC East. Participants were drawn from central banks, and ministries of finance, economic planning, and development.
The workshop was facilitated by four (4) resource persons, comprising two (2) MEFMI fellows, Mr. Cappitus Chironga from the Central Bank of Kenya and Ms. Helvi Fillipus from the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises in Namibia, Mr. Tiviniton Makuve from IMF and Ms. Cristina Dimande from the MEFMI Secretariat.