Finance professor, Professor Joshua Yindenaba Abor has held a public lecture at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), Wa to outline how the Ghanaian and, by extension the African economy can be reformed for recovery from the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The lecture was held yesterday, Thursday, May 27, 2021 on the topic: “COVID-19 Pandemic and Africa’s Financial Systems: How do we reform the Post COVID-19 Financial System.”
Speaking at the lecture, the Former Dean of the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) called on government to strengthen the regulatory and legal environment of the economy to overcome the negative impacts of COVID-19 on financial systems of Ghana.
The Finance professor said Africa needs to develop a unified stock market system in order to attract more investors as part of strategies for reviving their economies from the impact of COVID-19.
Professor Abor called on governments of Anglophone countries to consciously promote the integration of their stock markets to build a much stronger financial system.
He commended African governments for having provided monetary and fiscal policy responses to accommodate the crisis of COVID-19 but said, other policy actions are needed to reform Africa’s financial systems in order to spur growth on the continent.
The Professor further lauded the government of Ghana for taking a bold step towards establishing a new national bank, the National Development Bank aimed to provide innovative and long term financing instruments for specific sectors of the Ghanaian economy, especially to inject extra capital into the agriculture and industrial sectors.
He however urged the government to circumspectly implement the policies of the bank to live up to its vision and mandate.
Professor Joshua Yindenaba Abor also urged the government to establish strong systems to guide the successful operations of the yet to be established National Development Bank to strengthen the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
Professor Joshua Yindenaba Abor at the closed of the Public Lecture donated 40 copies of his book titled, “Financial Markets and Institutions” to the SDD-UBIDS School of Business and the University’s Library.
PROFILE
Joshua Yindenaba Abor is a financial economist, qualified accountant and Professor of Finance with many years’ expertise, mainly in development finance and economics research, but with senior-level stints at practitioner, policy and consulting roles. He holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town South Africa after completing the PhD coursework (Financial Economics) at the Department of Economics, Harvard University, US. He is also a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) (UK). Joshua has a solid track record in capacity building and continuous professional development, mainly as former Dean of one of the largest Business Schools in Africa – University of Ghana Business School. He is an Adjunct Professor of Development Finance at the University of Stellenbosch Business School as well as Adjunct Professor of Finance at Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS), Wa and is a researcher with the African Economic Research Consortium. He is an External Fellow at the Centre for Global Finance, SOAS University of London and a Fellow at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the International Institute for Advanced Studies, Ghana. He has held Visiting Scholar positions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington DC, US. He also serves on the boards of some companies, including SAS Finance Group and chairs the boards of Best Western Premier Hotel and Macro Shipping Ltd. He chaired the board of SIC Life Company Ltd and is currently a member of the Bank of Ghana Monetary Policy Committee.