In an exclusive interview with The Standard yesterday on the sidelines of the 65th ordinary executive council meeting of the West Africa Bankers Association, Ogbogu who is also the group executive director of operations and technology at Ecobank explained: “The founding principles of Waba is to promote real integration and development of the financial system in West Africa which I believe is achievable but can only be done by the practitioners. This is one of the reasons why the association was formed some 33 years ago by the council of governors of Ecowas to look for ways of bringing together all the financial institutions and players within West Africa.
“However, the challenge we are facing is that some members have not really risen to the same level of commitment in terms of participation and contribution towards the activities of Waba. The ideals and programmes of the institution are something that every bank and association in the sub-region should subscribe to as a way of achieving real integration. This is important because Waba as an institution strives to serve as a fulcrum given the fact that there are many facets of engendering the integration effort. It is a platform to ensure that all institutions and practitioners come together to work for what is best for the financial system in which integration forms an integral part…
“We are trying to achieve our goals in West Africa and though we do not have a direct link or interface with The Gambia government in the programmes that we are running, we could seek its support through the local association and of course, the Central Bank of The Gambia. In the midst of the many fulcrums, there are many facets of engendering the financial integration effort and Waba is just one of them. So it is an association that brings all the financial institutions under one umbrella and a platform to make sure that they are together to achieve our goals. We will be able to achieve this and today’s session is one of the statutory sessions of the institution otherwise called the ordinary executive council meeting to lobby for greater commitment.”
By Lamin Njie
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