MEFMI conducts an in-country technical assistance workshop on compilation and reporting of Monetary and Financial Statistics

MEFMI assisted the Bank of Mozambique in building capacity on Monetary and Financial Statistics (MFS) compilation and reporting from 21 August – 01 September 2023 for the officials responsible for compiling MFS. The workshop was conducted at an advanced level in both English and Portuguese.

MFS is crucial for a better understanding of the economic flows. These statistics are also useful for the development of evidence-based policymaking, which is critical for effective and prudent monetary policy management. However, in the MEFMI region, capacity gaps in the compilation of these statistics, specifically on compiling and reporting harmonised data for central banks (CBs), other depository corporations (ODCs) and other financial corporations (OFCs), as well as cross-country data comparisons can undermine these efforts. The MEFMI end of Phase V Strategic Plan (2017-2021) assessment revealed that member countries have satisfied minimum standards for the compilation of MFS. For Phase VI (2022-2026), MEFMI aims to assist countries in adopting intermediate standards for the compilation of MFS using the MFS Manual and Compilation Guide (MFSMCG (2016)) conceptual framework. These standards include, amongst others, coverage on other depository corporations’ sectoral balance sheets and survey, depository corporations’ survey and other financial corporations’ sectoral balance sheets and financial Corporations Survey. The objective of the workshop was to deepen the understanding of officials to compile and report monetary and financial statistics in the Bank of Mozambique in line with the Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual and Compilation Guide (MFSMCG) 2016. The Administrator or Executive Director at the Bank of Mozambique, Ms. Silvina de Abreu graced the opening session of the workshop. She expressed her appreciation to MEFMI for agreeing to conduct the workshop and briefly outlined the importance of the workshop to the economies of the region. She went on to briefly outline MEFMI’s past relationship with the Bank of Mozambique and expressed her appreciation of the achievements in capacity building that have been made so far. She expressed her confidence that the workshop was going to be a resounding success based on the team of experts MEFMI has assembled. In closing, she urged the participants to work hard in this workshop and outlined that its benefit would be seen in the quality of work they would submit going forward.

MEFMI trained twenty-two (22) participants from the Bank of Mozambique. Of the 22 participants, fourteen (14) of them (64 percent) were male while eight (8) of them (36 percent) were female. This is attributable to the gender employee composition  in the Bank of Mozambique. The workshop was facilitated by two (2) resource persons, Mr. Senei Molapo, a MEFMI Graduate Fellow and MEFMI Programme Manager, as well as Dr. Jacob Lungu, a lead facilitator who is also an Assistant Director: Information and Statistics at the Bank of Zambia.  Mr. Edson Neto Júlio was a translator and interpreter during the workshop.

Prepared by Senei Molapo