John Kweku Asamoah (4th from right) in a photograph with course participants
The National Investment Bank (NIB), in collaboration with the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI), hosted a five-day workshop on Financial Modeling for Project Finance in Accra.
Participants for the workshop were selected from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa and Botswana.
The aim of the workshop was to equip participants with the knowledge on how to develop and apply effective and robust financial models for projects viability.
AADFI is an international organization with over 80 member Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) across Africa with multilateral DFIs from Asia and Europe.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIB, John Kweku Asamoah, challenged participants to take advantage of the workshop to deepen their knowledge on financial modeling.
That, he said, would help improve their competence and performance, adding that the challenges facing the African continent were similar.
He therefore entreated participants to openly share their peculiar experiences and challenges to serve as a case study for all to learn from.
Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Johnson Asiama, in a speech read on his behalf, said development finance institutions played critical roles in providing inclusive financial services such as credit, insurance, savings and payment services to the poor.
He further urged DFIs to provide sustainable finance that deals with social and environmental challenges associated with their growth and development.
Dr. Asiama disclosed that the Bank of Ghana was working with the Association of Bankers to review the existing Base Rate Model.
The idea behind the model, he said, was to bring transparency to rate setting, hence lending rate in the economy.
The committee, he said, has completed its work and soon a draft notice would be issued for implementation.
Dr. Asiama also indicated that the Bank of Ghana was developing a Central Data Hub for use by data providers to ease data submission to Credit Bureaus.
He added that proposed amendments to the Borrowers and Lenders Act 2008 (Act 773) had been drafted with the aim of strengthening the Secured Transaction Regime in the creation, perfection, priority and enforcement of security interest on both movable and non-movable properties.
He urged financial institutions to work with financial technology firms to deploy security systems with threat intelligence capabilities to assist in preventing cyber threats to financial infrastructure.
He also enjoined financial institutions and payment systems operators to obtain international security certifications such as the ISO 27001 and the PCI DSS, since these are necessary to promote integrity of the financial payment systems.