me to acknowledge both the financial and technical support received from our partners that have rendered the mefmi capacity building efforts effective in general. particularly and in support of the fellows development programme, the technical cooperating partners have gone an extra mile by providing expertise that groom the fellows on gratis terms. turning to the fellows who have graduated today, i would like you to sincerely note that mefmi holds you in very high esteem. as such you need to live to its ideals. mefmi ’ s investment, let alone the investment of member states in human capital development, is very dear. in this regard, i urge you to display high levels of integrity and dedication by leading in assisting to impart knowledge and skills in your own institutions. it is our honest expectation that compensation from your own institution or mefmi will not be the only guiding motive for you to impart skills on behalf of your institution or mefmi because they have respectively assisted you to acquire the special skills in this programme. 5. ladies and gentlemen : i believe the graduants are anxiously waiting to celebrate later tonight and as such i do not intend to prolong my speech. i would like oncemore to thank all the distinguished guests that joined us in this memorable occasion. i would like to especially thank the financial cooperating partners that are ably represented by their ambassadors resident in harare and also the africa capacity building foundation ( acbf ). i wish all the graduated fellows a safe return home. finally allow me to thank our host government through governor gono and principal secretary, manungo, for the excellent hospitality that mefmi secretariat is enjoying in spite of the economic challenges that zimbabwe is going through. mefmi will continue to count on you in this regard. last but not least let me thank mefmi staff for the secretariat ’ s hard working spirit that guarantees good outcomes all the time. i thank you all! asanteni!!

and attachments at exemplary institutions. in addition mefmi arranged a “ one - to - one ” mentoring and coaching programme to all fellows with leading experts in the subspecialty chosen. having personally participated in these activities as a resource person, i can vouch for the quality of the process. 3. today we have witnessed the largest group of 25 fellows ever graduating, at once, since the inception of mefmi. this crop will bring the total number of graduate fellows to 36. the number for the accredited fellows now stands at 19 following the 3 that have qualified today. i am also told that currently there are 12 candidate fellows under training who will be graduating early in 2008. in addition, tomorrow the secretariat will be conducting rigorous interviews to recruit a new group of 17 fellows, which will bring the total number of fellows under training to 29. these developments are a clear demonstration that the fellows programme is rising to greater heights than was the case at the beginning. this is evident from not only the number of graduating fellows but also the diversity of the specialty areas. the diverse areas now include : post hipc debt strategy formulation and analysis ; public debt strategy formulation ; financial supervision of pension funds ; payments systems ( oversight ) ; banking supervision ( basel ii ) ; financial programming ; and policy and economic modelling that reflect the emerging capacity building needs of the member states. the expertise acquired by the fellows will be utilized in assisting member states in designing appropriate policies and strategies for enhancing economic growth relevant for poverty reduction. although mefmi may have registered success in the fellows development programme because of the notable outputs, the demand for capacity far outstrip the supply. mefmi ’ s vision is to realise that dream of a critical mass of accredited fellows being available in each institution of the member state. 4. your excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, one of the gains of the fellows programme is the benefit of high quality expertise at a minimal cost. as you may well know, for decades, africa has been grappling with problem of limited capacity in specialist areas. long term technical assistance provided from overseas has been perceived as a solution. experiences in the region, however, indicate that technical assistance perpetuated and turned into great dependency. the coming of institutions such as mefmi, with the noble approach of empowering its member states officials and reducing use of external experts. this aspect has become a route towards sustainable and self - generating capacity for mefmi. ladies and gentlemen : allow