The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) has awarded a $1.3 million grant to the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM).
The grant will finance regional trainings 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 ACBF said in a statement.
The trainings will cover 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.
“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.
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 signing event in Abuja.
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. The new grant increases support to about $10 million.
Director-general of WAIFEM, 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.
