New Telegraph

AfDB’s institute, partners seek prudent management of public finances

The African Development Institute of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and its partners recently hosted the 8th Global Community of Practice policy dialogue on managing public finances in times of crisis in Africa.

 

According to press release posted on its website, the AfDB said more than 500 delegates from 58 countries representing global institutions, governments, research bodies and think tanks participated in the event which also featured representatives of several think tanks and universities in Africa, former ministers of finance, former and current central bank governors, heads of academic institutions, the private sector, and civil society.

 

Opening the meetings, the bank’s Senior Vice President, Bajabulile Swazi Tshabalala, warned that the continent would not achieve the 2030 global Sustainable Development Goals without affordable financing and prudent public finance management systems. Tshabalala lauded the partners for working together to convene the dialogue on such an important subject.

 

“There is an urgent need for better-focused policy support to African countries, structured within a framework that incorporates both crisis management and post-pandemic resilience and green recovery,” she said.

 

In his welcoming remarks, Professor Kevin Chika Urama, Acting Chief Economist and Vice President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management at the AfDB, called for urgent action to improve public financial management systems in Africa, based on lessons from the Covid-19 crisis.

 

“It has, no doubt, deepened the need for enhanced mobilization and prudential management of scarce public finances to deliver development impacts,” Urama said.

 

The statement said that the seminar was followed by an inaugural three-day executive training programme for representatives of government agencies, ministries and central banks, which focused on key policy tools for managing public finances in times of crisis.

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