by around 6 %. this is impressive enough. its southern african neighbours, mozambique and zambia, are likely to clock more than 7 % growth. what is driving all this growth you may ask? not only has the region discovered oil and natural gas but it is also blessed with a young population and a rising middle class. falling trade barriers, stable interest rates, and greater currency stability are encouraging interregional trade. large kenyan banks like equity bank which used to have 100 % of its revenues from within kenya in 2007, now gets 12. 5 % of its revenues from the rest of the region as expansion plans bear fruit. with banking penetration rates in africa at close to 20 %, large african banks are raising deposits cheaply from the villages, in increasingly innovative ways, and lending it at huge spreads to the corporate sector and upper middle class. yes, these are good times for the banking industry in africa. with 40 % of the african workforce between the ages of 15 – 24, and with the continent becoming increasingly urban, africa ’ s challenge is to use its demographic dividend wisely. with strong growth comes increased global investor attention. just to give you a few examples, last year two of the best performing stock markets in the world were african – nigeria and kenya. last september, zambia ’ s debut usd750 million eurobond auction was oversubscribed by a staggering 15 times, pushing its yield down to 5. 6 %! africa will issue a record usd7 billion in eurobonds this year, more than the cumulative sum of the last five years. with western nations curtailing donor aid, fast - growing african nations, with manageable debt to gdp ratios, are not finding problems in attracting money in a world where the search for yield is increasingly becoming important. money has increasingly been flowing into the domestic bond market in the likes of nigeria, where a well - functioning secondary bond market exists, with the inclusion in the jp morgan emerging markets bond index helping to push down yields at the long end of the curve. unlike in the west where interest rates hover at, or near, the zero - bound, with interest rates in kenya and nigeria for example between 8 % to 14 %, there is much scope for compression in africa as monetary policy gains traction and inflation falls, which will in turn help unlock still more growth. the africa growth story is just only beginning. mauritius, as the friendly, neighbourhood, well - connected ifc, can expect much business to come

and time taken for settlement by not having to route the transaction through third parties outside the comesa region and to enhance security of payments. this system is characterised by a t + 0 settlement, with possibility of real - time payment at higher fees. banks will access this payment system through their respective central banks. the bank of mauritius is earmarked to act as the settlement bank in the system. let me now touch on human resource infrastructure, which is of direct relevance to institutions like the university of technology mauritius ( utm ). human resource infrastructure the scarcity of skilled manpower could inhibit the development of the financial sector. in this regard the mauritian authorities have, rightly so, opened up the island to foreign talent. in addition, tertiary institutions have been designing a range of courses to meet the exigencies of the financial sector in terms of labour requirements. i am aware, for instance, that the utm has in the recent past set up courses in banking and finance at both undergraduate and graduate levels. the point i am making here is simple – academia has a key responsibility in safeguarding the sustainability of financial sector growth in mauritius. concluding remarks to conclude, i shall merely state that the bank of mauritius is committed to continue its leading role in the development of the mauritian banking and financial sector. thank you.