Denny H Kalyalya: Practical aspects of the risk management
implementation process
Opening remarks by Dr Denny H Kalyalya, Deputy Governor Operations, Bank of Zambia, at
the Risk Management Workshop for Risk Liaison Officers, Alternates and Risk Coordinating
Officers, Lusaka, 15 May 2008.
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The Director - Risk Management
•
Ladies and Gentlemen
I wish to welcome you all to this second series of workshops organized by the Risk
Management Department. This series of workshops is intended to help us all understand the
practical aspects of the risk management implementation process as we proceed to apply it
to our respective departments.
The sessions you are going to have today and tomorrow focus on the first two stages in the
risk management process i.e. the Context Establishment and Risk Identification stages. I am
made to believe that, during the course of this year, you shall gather again to deal with the
practical aspects of the other three critical stages in the approved risk management process,
namely Risk Analysis, Risk Evaluation and Risk Treatment. As you participate in these
workshops, it is important to bear in mind that senior management attaches great importance
to the implementation of the risk management framework.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
These workshops have come against a backdrop of implementation teething problems.
Departments had difficulties in understanding the initial guidance given by the Risk
Management Department in its efforts to facilitate the implementation of the risk
management framework. It is senior management's hope that the facilitation that will be
given in these workshops will go a long way in addressing the identified teething problems.
It is extremely important that you all realize from the very outset that you will be the anchors
for the success of this process for your respective departments. For this reason, it is
imperative that you understand in full the processes that will be discussed in this workshop.
Senior management's expectation is that you will acquire the necessary tools to enable you
facilitate the proper completion of the Context Establishment and Risk Identification
exercises within your respective departments.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Allow me to give you a brief background on the implementation of the Risk Management
Framework at the Bank of Zambia. You will recall that starting in October 2006 through April
2007, the Risk Management Department embarked on a programme of sensitizing all the
members of staff and the Board of Directors on the establishment of the risk management
framework at the Bank. Given that these workshops had coverage of 99% of all Bank of
Zambia staff, I am more than confident that most of you were participants in those
workshops. The end of this series of workshops, marked the end of Phase I of the
implementation programme of the Risk Management Framework at the Bank.
Following the end of the risk sensitization workshops the next stage required the
implementation of the framework in the business areas. As mentioned earlier, the Bank faced
a number of teething problems in the implementation process of the first stages of the
framework with departments having some difficulties in following written guidance that was
being given by the Risk Management Department. As one of the possible solutions to this,
senior management agreed to the Risk Management Department's suggestion that Phase II
of the risk management framework implementation process also be effected through
workshops, targeting the Risk Liaison Officers who are, by definition, the critical anchors of
the approved risk management framework. This background therefore justifies the gathering
that we have here today.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Your group, as Risk Liaison Officers, Alternates and Risk Coordinating Officers, occupies
and a plays a very important role in the governance structure of the Risk Management
Framework. You may wish to note that your group plays a function of a "critical link" between
staff from your respective departments and the Head of Department who is, by definition, the
Risk Manager. For this reason, the importance of your responsibilities should be very clear
and need not be overemphasized. For those who might have forgotten their roles, I wish to
encourage you to re-familiarize yourselves with the Risk Management and Business
Continuity Management (BCM) Policies, where your respective responsibilities are clearly
spelt out.
Having said this, the workshop you are attending today and tomorrow has the following key
objectives:
i. to explain the practical aspects of "Context Establishment" and the "Risk
Identification" processes so as to ensure that you fully understand these initial, but
critical steps, in the risk management process so as to enable you to assist your
respective departments to complete these important stages of the process; and
ii. to remind you of your role and responsibilities, as Risk Liaison Officers, Alternates
and Risk Coordinating Officers, in the Risk Management Framework.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Allow me to reiterate what I said during the risk sensitization workshops - the success of the
Bank of Zambia Risk Management Framework will in a large measure depend on how well
this process will be understood and how well its implementation at departmental level will be
facilitated by you. As Risk Liaison Officers, Alternates and Risk Coordinating Officers for your
respective departments, you will be expected to not only provide leadership and guidance to
your respective departments on risk management matters, but you will also be required to
play a catalytic role in the whole risk management process. As the proverbial saying goes,
the buck for managing the risks in your respective Departments stops at you! The Risk
Management Department's role will remain confined to the coordination and facilitation of the
Bank-wide risk management activities.
In conclusion, I wish to urge you all to take a keen interest in the deliberations of this
workshop. As officers at the frontline of risk management in the Bank, you are expected to be
conversant with the risk management process that is being implemented at the Bank, and
there is no better platform to provide that opportunity than now! To this end, the programme
of that this workshop is organized in such a way as to be highly interactive. Therefore, I urge
you to feel free to ask as many questions as possible.
With these few words, it is now my singular honor and privilege to declare this workshop
officially open.
I thank you.