CEDA looking to benefit from international Development Financial Institutions (DFI) conference

Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) is looking forward to improve its systems and operations as it is expected to benchmark at the upcoming CEOs Forum for the World Federation of Development Financial Institutions (WFDFI) billed for next week.

The forum, which is on its third leg, will be hosted by CEDA in Gaborone from November 2nd until 4th. CEDA Chief Operations Officer (COO), Andrew Madeswi said while it is important for DFI’s to put in place sound corporate governance and risk management frameworks to ensure sound financial performance, they must never lose sight of their responsibility to the ordinary citizens. “We must expand access to financing and work hard to maximize impact and social outcomes,” he said.

The event themed “DFI’s sustaining relevance in the age of disruption,” will centre around ways, which the DFIs can adapt to changes in financial systems, policies as well as organizational and institutional frameworks.

It will also discuss ways in which DFIs adopt new technologies to improve operational efficiencies, risk management and service delivery. There will also be discussions on thoughts and insights by CEOs on sustaining the relevance of the DFIs going forward.

Quizzed on the lessons learnt from previous forums, Madeswi said the issues were mainly on environmental effects including how to contribute towards taking care of the environmental future. “We also realized that, the banking environment has been rapidly changing and we need to look at relevance of service in terms of technology platforms. As CEDA we have launched mobile offices to serve the clients across the country. These are engagements we continue to look at when we meet with our counterparts,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the forum is expected to attract about 300 delegates. It is understood that already over 150 international delegates have confirmed attendance while more are yet to confirm. In addition 100 delegates have already confirmed.