International Financial Body Pledges to Promote Best Practices in Africa

Posted by African Examiner Banking & Finance, Business News, Latest Headlines Tuesday, October 29th, 2013

By Eric Ojo, Pretoria

In line with its mandate, the Association of International Financial & Investment Analysts has pledged to continue to promote and encourage professionalism and best practices amongst its members across the African continent.

The association said it is poised to organize and facilitate training programmes regularly with a view to developing and enhancing the operational capacity of financial analysts in Africa, adding it will also promote networking among members to share information and knowledge in order to develop the relatively young association.

The President/Chairman, Governing Council of the association, Mr. Adrew Adeche made the pledge while speaking at the 2013 Best Practices Award/International Business Bonding which was organized by the South African chapter of the Chartered Institute of Financial & Investment Analysts, recently in Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to him, “We are positioned to arrange a training programme that is more regular to develop in us standards that are essential to face the challenges in our volatile economy”.

Mr. Adeche added that the professional body does not accept any behaviour that will put their clients in the urgent of any disadvantage as stipulated in the rules, regulations and code of conduct of the Chartered Institute of Financial & Investment Analysts.

He also noted the role of financial analysts is very critical in any economy, adding that it should therefore be taken seriously by practitioners in order to meet the demands of the profession, especially in terms of ethical and best practices.

“Our role in the economy as investment and financial analysts is extremely important. The financial/investment system is the barometer for measuring economic stability, sanity, growth and development. It is also the pivot around which most activities in the economy revolve, therefore finance/investment practice is an emerging area, paramount to individual, national and economic prosperity”, he added.

He however commended the Governing Council and management team of the association for their efforts and hard work, especially for putting together this year’s Best Practices Corporate Award, a platform on which, according to him, prospective members who have been found worthy in learning, character and other premises considered by the Council, are admitted into the fold of professional financial and investment analysts.

Also in his welcome address, the Secretary General of the Association of the International Financial & Investment Analysts, Dr. Moses Agoro, said the award is an annual platform created by the South African chapter of the Chartered Institute of Financial & Investment Analysts to revolutionize orientation, celebrate excellent performance, build corporate network, enhance capacities, facilitate interaction and promote ethical values in the financial profession.

Dr. Ogoro explained that the association’s role was merely that of a catalyst in the transformation, development and empowerment of practitioners in the financial/investment field.

Africa, which according to him, is erroneously referred to as the Dark Continent, is abundantly blessed with untapped natural resources, vast investment landscape, highly skilled personnel to mention but a few.

“I simply blame this on lack of direction premised on information gap, the missing link here is the pendulum for proper direction in all quarters to engender socio-economic development for all African nations. By implication, Chartered Institute of Financial and Investment Analysts is a skill pool and a market for knowledge integration and collaboration, prepared to mitigate arising global economic challenges”, he further stated.