luke mwananshiku, 1976 - 1981 ; • mr david a r phiri, 1984 - 1986 ; • mr leonard chivuno, 1986 - 1987 ; • mr francis x nkhoma, 1987 - 1989 ; • mr jacques a bussieres, 1990 - 1992 ; • mr dominic c mulaisho, 1992 - 1995 ; and • dr jacob mwanza 1995 - 2002. may i, at this point, request that we stand and observe a moment of silence in honour of our past late governors ; r c h hallet, valentine s musakanya, bitwell r kuwani, luke mwananshiku and leonard chivuno and many other former employees of the bank who passed away during the last 40 years. thank you. it is important to mention here that most of the former governors have continued playing critical roles in the financial sector and i can proudly say that three of them today serve as chairmen of commercial banks. in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, may i again welcome you all to this conference, and i urge you to be open and constructive during the deliberations. i thank you.

louis kasekende : the benefits of regionalism opening remarks by mr louis kasekende, deputy governor of the bank of uganda, at the meeting of the technical officials of the association of african central banks ( aacb ) – eastearn africa region, kampala, 2 february 2011. * * * i am here to represent the governor of the bank of uganda, prof. emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile who would have wished to be here at this opening. however due to a conflict in his schedule, he is unable to make it and please accept his apologies. the bank of uganda is very privileged to be the current chair of the aacb eastern africa sub region and indeed to be your host for this meeting of technical officials. as you are aware, africa has embraced regionalism with various regional groupings like comesa, eac, sadc, and ecowas. we believe that as a region, we should leverage regionalism as a means to generating efficiencies in our economies and to support development of the continent. we should also take note of the shift of power in the global economy to countries like china that has a population of about one billion people and may soon have an average per capita income of over us $ 30, 000. africa on the other hand, has a population of about one billion people, but with 54 countries, some of which have a population of less than one million people. average income of africa is about us $ 400. in order for africa to contribute effectively to the global agenda, there is need to derive a strong single voice at international level using regionalism instead of 54 varying voices. these instead generate a lot of “ noise ” but not necessarily “ voice ”. further more, for africa to compete effectively in the global trading environment, there is need to adapt technology and gain economies of scale. this also requires exploiting opportunities generated by regionalism. the recent global financial crisis provides more lessons for africa on the need to strengthen continental cooperation. as the global crisis unfolded, the developed countries saw a need to coordinate their policies with strong emerging economies under the aegis of the g20. through the cooperation and policy coordination, the g20 was able to avert a global financial meltdown and to avoid a long drawn - out global recession. it is for these reasons, that africa should also strengthen regional and continental level organisations to lead policy coordination and strengthen the voice of africa in global meetings. it will not be possible