31, August 2023
Battle of the Banks seeks to find the best young bankers in Africa – do you have what it takes? 0
As banks across Africa navigate a challenging economic climate and come to terms with an increasingly digitised continent and the immense opportunity this brings, there’s an opportunity for bankers and banks to battle it out for top honours in the prestigious pan African competition, Battle of the Banks Africa 2023.
The winning bank and their team of star bankers will be regarded as the best new talent on the continent in terms of business and financial performance, with a sharp understanding of risk management strategies and corporate governance.
In the first-of-its-kind in Africa, ICAP Training Solutions has partnered with global Capital Markets Professional Services firm Andile, to bring ProBanker’s Battle of the Banks simulation engine to market. Inviting Africa’s young bankers to enter. The Battle of the Banks Africa is a robust competition and training opportunity that will see entrants gain insight into how different areas of a bank interact to enhance overall business and financial performance. In addition to this, entrants will develop important skills and understanding of how macroeconomic indicators impact the decision-making process at the highest levels of bank leadership.
ICAP Training Solutions’ CEO Yonatan Rom says: “The Battle of the Banks Africa provides a simulated environment where young bankers must think about what it takes to run an entire organisation and make strategic, corporate governance, risk and financial decisions. The simulated banking market provides practical experience and learning in a hands-on manner.”
The simulation provides bankers with skills that cannot be obtained anywhere else, other than through years of experience. Those banks who enter teams also benefit from the training as entrants can apply their learnings to their everyday roles and responsibilities back in the office.
Alongside the learning and upskilling, the top performing teams progress to the final four “shoot-out” on 22 November. Here teams will prepare a 4-quarter performance report which will be delivered via a 25-minute presentation on their simulated bank’s performance.
The ‘Battle’ is based on stock performance, net income, loan performance, Basel ratio and capitalisation usage. Each of these areas is afforded its own weighting metric and has an overall weighting of 65%. Making up the other 35% is the conceptual learning (15%) and the simulated assignments (20%).
“Our intention behind Battle of the Banks Africa is to drive practical experience, provide a unique learning simulation, develop skills and business acumen, give access to online training tools and webinars and enable networking with other young bankers from across Africa. The winners will emerge as the best young bankers in Africa,” says Pieter Kelbrick, Andile’s Managing Director.
To enter as a team, visit www.battleofthebanks.org and sign-up before 15 September 2023. Entrance costs $2,750 for a team of four. First prize winners will receive a prestigious floating trophy for the best performing young bankers on the continent, other prizes to be awarded are individual winners’ trophies, gold medals and certificates as well as a $2000 ICAP Academy coupon. There are also prizes for the second, third and fourth winners. The Most Aggressive Bank, Most Cautious Bank and Best Bank presentation in the Grand Finale will also receive prizes.
31, August 2023
From Burkina Faso to Niger to Gabon, Western hegemony dying in Africa 0
Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 was undeniably one of the biggest evil summits in modern history. Greedy and racist European colonialists sat down in the German city and divided Africans as if they were sharing bread on a breakfast table.
The conference was organized by Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany at the request of King Leopold II of Belgium, the Western genocidal barbarian that murdered more than 10 million innocent Africans in Congo.
Most Africans are not even aware of this genocide in Congo perpetrated by the Belgium colonialists because it is not in our history books written by the white colonialists.
European colonialism in Africa lasted more than a century with only the ancient Kingdom of Ethiopia spared because they defeated the Italian colonialists on the battlefield.
Trillions and trillions of dollars were stolen from Africa, millions of Africans were murdered by the European colonialists and Africans were massively brainwashed that they had no history before European colonialism.
The wave of ‘independence’ in Africa from the 1950s and 1960s did not represent true independence. What actually happened was that colonialism was cleverly replaced with neocolonialism by the genocidal imperialist barbarians of the West.
The massive looting of rich resources in Africa continued under Western puppet leadership. The courageous African leaders who refused to dance to the tune of the European colonialists were eliminated.
This was what happened to African heroes, Patrick Lumumba of Congo and Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso. Congo has all mineral resources except for crude oil.
The uranium used by the US regime to make the atomic bombs unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was mined in Congo.
French greed in Africa
Among the European colonialists, French colonialism was more brutal and exploitative.
France killed more than 1.5 million civilians in Algeria alone. They murdered tens of thousands of civilians in other African countries.
One of the Modus Operandi of the French colonialists was to assemble Islamic scholars in a hall and exterminate all of them. They did this in Algeria, Chad, Mali and Senegal.
And the greed of their neocolonialism is extreme. Even after independence, France is still controlling the wealth of its former colonies in Africa.
The rich resources of French nations are still controlled by France and they continue to pay colonial tax to France.
French goods and services dominate their markets. The domineering presence of France in these countries has been excruciating and devastating for local populations.
Niger Republic does not know the quantity of uranium France was taking from there, which is worst than slavery.
No evil lasts forever
There is a popular saying that “No evil lasts forever”.
France’s neocolonialism in Africa will not last forever. Popular military coups against puppets of France imperialism have started and are gathering momentum.
The recent military coup in the West African state of Niger Republic does not stand in isolation but follows similar upheavals in the neighboring countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea in recent years.
Mali is facing insurgency that is backed by Western hegemony. Mali expelled French troops because they were actively aiding the insurgents to justify its military presence in the African country.
Now, on Wednesday, we woke up with the news of another puppet of the Western hegemonic barbarians in Gabon overthrown by the military. Ali Bango inherited the Gabon presidency from his corrupt Father, Omar Bongo.
Early on Wednesday, some military personnel appeared on state TV and announced that they were seizing power and dislodging a family that has ruled the country for 56 years.
The military officers introduced themselves as members of the Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions.
“Today the country is undergoing a severe institutional, political, economic, and social crisis,” the officers said in a statement, dubbing the recent election illegitimate.
“In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime.”
Pertinently, Gabon’s former president had 70 bank accounts, 39 apartments, 2 Ferraris, 6 Mercedes Benz cars, 3 Porsches and a Bugatti in France. He ruled for 42 years (from 1967 to 2009). French leaders loved Bongo because he was loyal to them.
His son, Ali Bongo has been the president for 14 years (2009 – 2023). He has just been overthrown in a coup.
Failure of Western liberal democracy
The fact is that the Western liberal democracy has not only failed in Africa but has failed woefully.
Democracy in Africa has become a tool for the corrupt ruling elites to steal the wealth of their respective countries and transfer it to Western financial institutions while the populations remain in abject poverty and hunger.
Democracy is just another system of government hijacked by the Western hegemonic barbarians, the biggest enemies of the human race. Democracy is now an imperialist tool of Western hegemony in Africa. This is a bitter and undeniable fact.
The people of Gabon will definitely celebrate this military coup as it marks the end of French interference and looting in their country. Another setback for the French leaders.
Africa must rise again
The most noticeable current in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger Republic and Gabon is that the change of governments all have popular support as the people of those countries are tired of France’s imperialism, arrogance and terrorism.
Today France has the 4th largest gold reserves in the world and there is no single gold mine in France.
These gold mines are all in Mali, Niger Republic and other African countries. The France neocolonialism in Africa must end. Its time has come.
Culled from Presstv