To be successful, a pan-African Risk Management Strategy must achieve sound corporate governance framework, robust compliance and effective risk management processes for credit, market and liquidity, operational and fraud threats.

Group Chief Risk Officer, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Andre Blaauw stated this in a presentation at the Enterprise Risk Management, Africa Conference which took place at Sandton Convention centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Other strategies outlined by the UBA risk management expert include robust capital management, effective risk monitoring process and proactive risk mitigation by deploying all available tools. “Given the development status of African financial markets, the continent escaped some of the serious gaps in risk management and regulation and as such potential rewards are enormous if risks can be effectively managed” he explained.

The conference, organized annually by Terrapin Limited, brings together risk management practitioners from the continent. Speakers from various countries including the United States, South Africa, and Nigeria made presentations at the event. It provided coverage for various topics relating to the King III code of corporate governance, the ISO 31000 risk management standard as well as enterprise risk management and compliance.

Over 100 delegates from South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and Zambia representing such high profile companies like Citibank, Nedbank, SA Development Bank, Standard Bank and UBA, Telkom SA, MTN, Liberty Insurance and Risk Business International, USA attended the 4-day interactive forum.

 

About UBA Plc

United Bank for Africa Plc is one of Africa’s leading financial institutions offering universal banking to more than 7 million customer accounts. The opening of UBA Zambia brings to 15 the number of African countries where UBA Group has presence: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Benin and Gabon together with presence in New York, London and Paris.

UBA has over the past year rapidly expanded its network, positioning itself as the bank of choice for wholesale and retail clients in Africa and for Africa related businesses, demonstrating in action its positioning as “Africa’s Global Bank”. The physical expansion has been matched by the launch of a series of products designed specifically to address the key needs of African clients, whether individuals, companies or governments, in facilitating money transfer and cash management, trade finance and access to credit.