Skilled bankers critical for smooth international trade
14/May/2009

The Bankers Association of Malawi (Bam) says the country needs skilled bankers to facilitate easy trade with the outside world. Former Bam executive director Fanuel Kumdana was speaking in Blantyre at the start of a five-day Trade Finance Training Workshop for bankers jointly organised with international finance conglomerate, Citigroup. Trade finance is related to international trade and bankers assist importers and exporters by providing various forms of support including letters of credit. Kumdana said continued globalisation means countries have to continue to depend on each other for goods, services and other provisions and therefore trade financing play a critical part in this process.

"The global financial crisis has resulted in a number of changes in as far as international trade is concerned, hence the need to keep our bankers to be kept abreast with the changes," said Kumdana. The training has been co-financed by the Tech-nical and Vocational Edu-cation Training Authority (Teveta).

This is the third time Teveta has partnered Bam in providing training to bankers in the country. Kumdana thanked Teveta for the financial support saying it will help to address the skills gaps in the country. "We pray that Teveta will continue extending this hand of assistance to us so that we will in turn continue to provide critical training to our members and other sectors at a reasonable cost than would have normally been the case without their assistance," he said. Teveta service centre manager for Blantyre Elliot Mulanje said his or-ganisation is committed to ensuring that the country has adequate skills which will help it to realise its national agenda."

By Taonga sabola - News Analyst