Abuja, 10 July 2017 (ACBF) – The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the African Union’s Specialized Agency for Capacity Development on the continent, today in Abuja awarded a grant valued at $1.3 million to the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM).
The grant will be used to finance regional training workshops and seminars on gender-responsive economic policy management and budgeting, studies in financial and economic management and for the dissemination of outputs on economic and financial governance issues in the West African sub region. The beneficiaries of the training include staff of central banks, ministries of finance and economic planning and other public sector bodies in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Gambia that are the member-states of WAIFEM.
WAIFEM will use the grant to consolidate and expand the scope of its activities within the next eighteen months, the Executive Secretary of the ACBF, Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie, said at the event.
“In the midst of a global financial and economic downturn with potential for grave consequences for African countries, many of whom are aid dependent, the relevance of institutions such as WAIFEM cannot be over-emphasized,” Prof. Nnadozie said. “I am particularly happy to note that the current phase of support to this Institute has components that would devise programs to respond to emerging issues in the global economy and their impact on sub-regional member countries,” he said.
As the continent’s premier agency for developing human and institutional capacities, ACBF has in the past 17 years provided financial support totalling more than $8 million to WAIFEM for its activities. With the new grant, the support has increased to about $10 million.
In his own remarks, the Director General of WAIFEM, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, said ACBF’s assistance over the years has enabled the institute to train more than 16000 people in various areas of finance and economic management staff of the five member states.
“The mission of the Institute is to develop on a sustainable basis the expertise in the field of macroeconomic, debt and financial sector management” among the staff of central banks, government departments and agencies in member countries, Prof. Ekpo said.
While giving this renewed grant to WAIFEM, ACBF has once recognized the key role palyed by its partner – the African Development Bank (AfDB) in making available the needed resources for the concerned prgrams.
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For more information, please contact:
Abel Akara Ticha – Senior Communication Officer
The African Capacity Building Foundation
Harare, Zimbabwe
+263 7+263-4 304663, 304622, 332002, 332014; Ext. 279
Email: [email protected]
About the African Capacity Building Foundation
Established in 1991, ACBF builds human and institutional capacity for good governance and economic development in Africa. To date the Foundation has empowered people in governments, parliaments, civil society, private sector and higher education institutions in more than 45 countries and 6 regional economic communities. ACBF supports capacity development across Africa through mobilization and leveraging of resources for capacity development; grants, investments and fund management; knowledge services; promoting innovation in capacity development and capacity development advisory services. The establishment of ACBF was in response to the severity of Africa’s capacity needs, and the challenges of investing in indigenous human capital and institutions in Africa. ACBF interventions are premised on four principles: the centrality of capacity to the development process in Africa; the critical role of a partnership and demand-driven approach in tackling capacity challenges; African ownership and leadership in the capacity development process; and a systematic, sequenced and coordinated approach to the capacity development process that pays attention to capacity retention and utilization. For further information go to: www.acbf-pact.org
