The training, which was held at MDI campus in Kanifing, sought to improve the capacity of bankers and other operatives in the financial sector on risk management.
In her opening remarks, Dr Jainaba Kah, the director-general of the MDI, while welcoming the participants, said: “This practical-based training exercise would offer a forum for interactive, experiential and intellectual networking of participants and resource persons on contemporary banking issues, and topics such as the global financial crisis, corporate governance structure-roles and responsibilities of risk management, capital adequacy and risk regulation and credit risk process, operations and liquidity risk, and trade and market risk.
“We have worked tirelessly with the support of the governor of the Central Bank and MDI to prepare a rigorous, multi-disciplinary training programme designed to augment your skills in risk management and strategy to enable you to function more effectively in initiating and sustaining progressive change in your banks.”
According to her, the overarching agenda of the training course was to build capacities and competencies within the banking sector focusing on improved problem-solving skills, judicious use of increasingly scarce resources, managing risk, among others.
She added: “I hope that this training would help how to change our banking practices for the socio-economic development of our nation, and to transform The Gambia into a financial and investment hub for the region given our relative peace, stability, security and the abundance of untapped investment opportunities.”
Earlier, the governor of the CBG, Mr Amadou Colley, said the training was apt and timely in that it came up at a time when the country needed competent people to manage its finances and the risks involved.
“It is only through understanding of the risks associated with what we do and developing strategies that will enable us to achieve our objectives of the financial institutions, which is to add value to the network of the institutions,” he said.
According to him, such training activities should be directed not only at the participants, but also at the entire Gambian citizenry, especially at those serving in corporate and public institutions.
He added: “I have had several sessions with the president [Yahya Jammeh] where he has expressed dissatisfaction with Gambians traveling out of the country to attend courses more often than, two-day workshops as far [away] as Ghana, among other countries, which is very expensive and costly to our economy. MDI coming up with this type of training course is something that should be taken seriously and worthy of emulation, he said, adding that the CBG is one institution that would support MDI at least in the form of participating in the institution and, where “our services are needed, in the form of acting as resource personnel.
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