the symposium last year, we could not have foreseen that the subject would assume such importance as to attract this splendid attendance. governors will recall that we did discuss financial inclusion as far back as 2007. in truth, our choice of this aacb agenda converges with its development through the g - 20 process. many countries worldwide are actively engaged in reforms and programmes for the provision of affordable banking services, which makes the topic of our symposium particularly pertinent. the slow recovery from the global crisis forces us to revisit our growth strategies and take a closer look at their impact on the whole of the societies we are expected to serve, not just the prosperous, but also the poor and the excluded – who are showing increasing signs of impatience as they wait for the elusive magic of trickle - down to improve their lot. africa is changing fast. from the gloom and the conflict of the last decades we now have new hope and opportunity spreading across the whole continent. in some parts, it is not just a wind of change but a veritable tempest. indeed, in certain places, such is the pace of change that some fear that we are moving straight from the african spring into a wintry period of discontent. we are here, therefore, to address the issue of what can the world of banking do to push back this spectre. with 77 % of our population still having no access to formal finance, we have our work cut out for us. bis central bankers ’ speeches today, as we open our discussions on inclusive finance and banking, we must frankly admit that in an environment where only a small minority of people ever set foot in a bank, and where banking itself is hardly part of the greater political debate, we face a daunting prospect to find a pathway for promoting the best use of the capital resources available to the continent, to ensure balanced and sustainable growth with social stability, hand - in - hand with price stability, financial stability, and monetary stability. stable currencies and control of inflation figure high among pro - poor policies. to maintain our focus as central banks and to remind ourselves of the distance we still have to travel, it is sobering to note that we are reaching the time when we should embark on stage iv of the african monetary cooperation program, which reduces the annual inflation target from the current 5 % to 3 % − a bar which is too high for many of us at this juncture. the wider agenda, when the present troubles have been overcome,

and co - chaired by myself and the director - general of the independent commission against corruption to develop and coordinate the strategies, policies and actions to ensure the implementation of the recommended actions in the 2018 mutual evaluation report. the core group now has the mandate to ensure the sustainability and continuity of the aml / cft reforms and to take appropriate actions for any emerging aml / cft risks. i must here express my deep - felt gratitude to the eu global facility which has been instrumental in the process for mauritius to exit the fatf list. continuous support and assistance have been provided by the eu global facility since september 2019 when they came to mauritius to carry out a scoping mission for delivery of technical assistance, the objective of which was to help mauritius implement relevant actions with respect to aml / cft. in this respect, i would like to enumerate some of the specific fields where support was provided to mauritius : i. technical assistance to the gambling regulatory authority to implement the risk - based supervision framework, capacity building for staff and provision of outreach to the gambling sector ; ii. assisting mauritius in conducting the npo terrorist financing risk assessment, training of the npo regulators, the law enforcement agents, including the mauritius revenue authority ; iii. training on the requirements of beneficial ownership for the financial sector and banking sector and dnfbp supervisors. this includes the formulation of a specific guidance and supervisory manual on beneficial ownership for bank of mauritius ’ licensees and staff. these two documents provide more granular guidance for alignment with international standards on bo information ; and iv. coaching the mauritian authorities for reporting to fatf on the icrg action plan. this is indeed to mention just a few of the projects where we have collaborated. many others are in the pipeline also. ladies and gentlemen, given the exit of mauritius from the fatf list of countries under increased monitoring ahead of its timeline, the country is now being looked upon to provide assistance and sharing experience with other countries in the icrg process. in this regard, jordan and panama are among the first countries to have benefited from the experience of mauritius. this will not have been possible without the support of the eu global facility team. i am equally pleased to share that at the level of the bank of mauritius, we are in discussion with a number of other central banks across the african continent on the topic of aml / cft and will soon be starting sharing expertise and experience in this field. ladies and gentlemen, the exit from the