on our thinking caps and come up with solutions for the government. one big advantage that we have is that central bankers have through the decades, manned very important government institutions. even when i look today, institutions as varied as the ministry of defense, the ministry of finance and such like have very senior central bankers working there in some form or another. and even in the legal sector, the attorney general ’ s department is working very closely with us. i think we have a significant role to play in - terms of capacity building not just in the banking sector, but in several other sectors that are vital to the economy. that is the challenge that all of you have to remember and try and participate. i myself, when i worked in these institutions few decades ago, the ministry of industries, in the treasury, it was a very enriching experience personally. but at the same time, i carried over the expertise i had picked up in the central bank and enriched those institutions as well. so that tradition should continue and i think it is incumbent on the central bank to really use our manpower. all of you are a concentrated pool of brainpower in this country. i do not think any other institution has so many qualified individuals. we have engineers, we have people from all sorts of fields, not just economics, in this institution, and we have to really build on those skill sets. one of the plans i have, which i am discussing with the dgs, ags, is to try and deepen our skill sets. we have to identify specific skill sets which are necessary for the central bank in the first instance, and also for the broader nation and to try and deepen those skill sets in a conscious basis so that our manpower development, what you call the improvement of our human capital becomes much more entrenched and becomes much more integrated interms of the national economic developmental effort. just to give you an example, we do not have enough accountants in the government service. when i talk to the police, the cid, the attorney general ’ s department, all these departments they do not have accountants. they cannot analyze when they see a balance sheet in any corporate case, they do not know how to handle it. there is a desperate shortage of manpower, partly because the accountants in this country can get much better salaries when they work for the private sector. now how do we bridge this gap? i think given that the central bank is a very secure service – maybe we do not pay

mohamed s fofana : managing sierra leone ’ s post - conflict economy keynote address by mr mohamed s fofana, deputy governor of the bank of sierra leone, at the opening ceremony of the regional forum on economic and financial management for legislators, freetown, sierra leone, 12 july 2004. * * * mr chairman, hon. minister of justice, your excellency, the high commissioner of the gambia, hon. members of national parliaments of waifem countries, director general of waifem, directors of the bank of sierra leone, distinguished guests, facilitators and participants, ladies and gentlemen, introduction it is my honour and privilege to extend a hearty welcome to all of you on behalf of the government and people of sierra leone, governor jd rogers who is unavoidably absent today, the board, management and staff of the bank of sierra leone and on my own behalf, on the occasion of the opening of the regional forum on economic and financial management for legislators organized by waifem. as host, i would like to urge you to take time out of your crowded programme to visit freetown and behold the many attractions of this rejuvenated city. ladies and gentlemen, permit me to briefly dwell on the state of the west african economy. the sub - region came into the new millennium with a combined gross domestic product ( gdp ) of us $ 80 billion, representing about 10 percent of the gdp of spain and against a backdrop of high unemployment, it is not surprising that income per capita averages 386 us dollars for our sub - region one of the lowest in the world. in addition, virtually all the countries are burdened by a huge debt overhang. indeed, only two of the 15 countries of ecowas are not classified among the highly indebted poor countries ( hipc ). ladies and gentlemen, i do not intend to spoil your day with depressing statistics about the economic performance of the sub - region as this would be tantamount to showing you only one side of the coin. the more pleasant face of this coin shows a sub - region parading some of the world ’ s leading exporters of crude oil, diamonds and gold, as well as abundant maritime resources. many of our countries also perform well in the global market for other commodities, including cocoa, cotton and groundnuts. however, when the abundant resource - endowment of the sub - region is set against its pandemic poverty, we see a development