A delegation of the National Bank of Angola (BNA) headed by Governor Valter Duarte da Silva was recently in Paris for meetings with the Bank of France and other French banking system institutions, to strength institutional relations and raise awareness in the French financial sector for the reform of the regulatory and banking supervision framework in Angola.
Through the BNA, Angola has developed a very strong effort to quickly adapt its financial system to international prudential standards and good practices with the objective of restoring international credibility and confidence in the Angolan financial system, aiming its recognition abroad by their counterparts.
BNA has been imposing on Angolan commercial banks the adoption of best practices in financial regulation and supervision, and as a result of this effort seven of the largest banks operating in Angola have already adopted International Accounting and Reporting Financial Statements Standards.
"Our expectation is that the European Central Bank and the United States Federal Reserve will recognize the National Bank of Angola as an entity of equivalence in banking regulation and supervision in the first half of this year," said Valter Duarte Silva.
The Angolan visit to the French capital is part of a program of contacts and visits of the BNA to the world's financial centres.
The BNA has developed several contacts with international institutions and counterparts such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve of the United States, the Bank of England, the Bank of France, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Portugal And the Reserve Bank of South Africa in order to adapt to good banking supervision practices in Europe and the United States, and to show what has already been done in Angola, as well as to train its technicians and senior management.
"Our work has been developed in partnership with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and in close collaboration with the central banks of Portugal, South Africa, Italy, the United Kingdom, France and the United States of America, with which we have already established protocols for training human resources and for technical assistance," said the governor of the BNA.
The Angolan delegation has held meetings at the highest level with the Governor of the Bank of France, Mr. François Villeroy Galhau, and with representatives of French banks such as BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Natixis, as well as institutions such as the French Banking Federation, MEDEF International, The International Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Paris Club.
(Source: jlma.pt)
Efforts to extend the reach of the internet to the 4 billion people worldwide that are not yet connected will only succeed if a digital ecosystem approach is adopted where access, affordability, skills and content are given equal attention, according to a new World Economic Forum-led initiative, Internet For All, whose key learning and best practices are published today.
The learning is published as a collection of best practices from around the world on how public-private collaboration has enabled internet access and adoption. Entitled Internet for All: A Framework for Accelerating Internet Access and Adoption, the report forms the basis of the Internet For All initiative’s first phase and concludes with a framework for governments and businesses to accelerate large-scale internet adoption.
The framework will be implemented in an initial project with the full endorsement of the governments of the Northern Corridor countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. In these countries, 75 million people representing 67% of the total population have no access to the internet.
“The internet has become a pervasive, fundamental part of daily life, but low internet penetration significantly impacts a country’s ability to participate in the digital economy, which is becoming an increasingly important priority for development as Africa, like the rest of the world, enters the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We know it is possible to break down the digital divide for the 55% of the world’s population that is still not connected: now it’s time for governments, businesses and civil society to make it happen,” said Alex Wong, Head, Global Challenge Partnerships and Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum.
"Achieving Internet for All is a critical priority for Africa to take full advantage of enormous current and future digital opportunities. This report provides a clear framework on which our Internet for All development strategy is based. In the Northern Corridor of East Africa, our aim is to help bring 25 million more citizen online by 2019," said Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, Minister for Youth and Information Communication Technology, Rwanda.
Local communities must be involved in infrastructure development at every step of the way, said Cyril M. Ramaphosa, Deputy President of South Africa. Infrastructure is for the betterment of people’s lives and is important that they feel a sense of ownership by being given full opportunity to benefit from the construction and from eventual delivery, he added.
South Africa’s experience of filling a gigantic post-apartheid infrastructure deficit over the past 21 years – since the advent of democratic government – has taught it important lessons, said Ramaphosa. One of these is that coordination of all projects at the highest level is critical to the best division of resources and to timely completion. South Africa has situated a coordination agency within the president’s office, enhancing and centralizing the government’s own management capacity; improving transparency, particularly with regard to tenders, which are often a point of corruption; and effectively “crowding in” the private sector.
Partnerships with the private sector have been particularly successful in the energy sector, with companies being given licences to develop generation capacity largely independent of government interference, and selling power into the national grid.
Colin Dyer, President and Chief Executive Officer, JLL, USA, said developing countries’ domestic capital markets are very shallow and will take time to strengthen and deepen. But the urgency of the infrastructure task requires financing right now, which means international markets have to be tapped.
Dyer listed four key factors to attracting international capital: transparency on costs and returns, and purchase and selling prices; reliable judicial systems to protect ownership; low levels of bureaucracy; and low levels of corruption. Dyer added that many countries in Africa are, in fact, success stories in terms of these criteria, but these stories are not being told. “The press loves to stream problems and whisper success,” he said.
John Rice, Vice-Chairman, GE, USA, said inclusive growth is impossible without electricity, citing figures showing that 500 million in Africa are “in the dark”. This has to change and quickly, and highlights the need for nimbleness and urgency on the part of governments and bureaucracies in addressing power gaps. “Speed matters,” he said, lamenting how important projects are allowed to “languish” due to political electoral cycles.
Equally, potential financers express eagerness to invest in infrastructure because of a clear and urgent need for it, but then allow enthusiasm to wane as they proceed to “define risk in the old-school ways,” noted Rice.
