AMEDA 2025: Experts chart resilient future for African, Mideast finanancial markets
By Taiye Olayemi
Experts have emphasised the need for financial institutions in Africa and Middle East to adopt proactive, technology-driven strategies to remain robust in an increasingly volatile global environment.
They said this during the 2025 Africa and Middle East Depositories Association Conference (AMEDA 2025) in Lagos on Friday.
The theme of the conference is “Resilience in Financial Markets: Preparing for Global Disruptions”.
The AMEDA conference is an event that brings together experts, policymakers, and stakeholders to discuss the future of financial institutions in the region.
Mr Stuart Turner, Founder of Avenir Technology, said cloud infrastructure must be embraced by all financial institutions and upscaled by those already utilising it.
Turner noted that by leveraging cloud solutions, financial institutions could enhance their ability to withstand disruptions, improve scalability and increase flexibility.
He emphasised that financial institutions must prioritise robust infrastructure from their inception to ensure resilience.
This includes implementing strong security measures to protect against potential cyber threats and external attacks on their databases.
Turner also spoke on principles to uphold in dealing with digital disruptions when building financial market infrastructure.
He said, “Building resilience should start from the basics. Individuals should build zero-trust security models.
“Artificial Intelligence should be explored and information sharing is also important in building a resilient financial institution.”
Also, Dr Bala Bello, Deputy Governor, Operations Directorate, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said collaboration is important in building resilience in the financial market.
Bello, who was represented by Mr Okey Umeano, Acting Director, Financial Markets at CBN, advised stakeholders in the market to embrace collaboration and design common goals to be achieved.
He said stakeholders should be open to effective communication, remain transparent and be open to sharing individual risk mechanisms.
Bello also spoke on how the CBN had built resilience over the years as a model for others to learn.
He said the CBN had calibrated its supervision to support resilience through a typical risk supervision framework, which directs resources to areas of higher risk.
He added that the CBN had also invested in upgrading its numerous applications and had continued to collaborate across the finance industry value chain.
“Regulators in the financial market also need to look into licensing and supervisory frameworks in their attempt to build resilience,” he said.
Mr Jim Micklethwaite, Managing Director, Financial Markets, Thomas Murray, enlightened the delegates on how stakeholders could improve transparency without being exposed to systemic risks.
Micklethwaite said operators in the financial market must begin to act like those in technology companies by embracing technology on an improved scale.
He advised operators to also invest in building cybersecurity infrastructure, which is critical to growth in the industry.
He emphasised the importance of financial market operators adopting cloud technology to build resilience.
Meanwhile, Ms Beverly Furman, Head of Operations and Change, STRATE, South Africa, advised on the orderly closing and reopening of financial markets on a daily basis to guard against disruption through power outages.
Mr Kyari Bukar, Chairman, Sunu Assurances Nigeria Plc, enlightened the delegates on building a shock absorber framework within the financial market. (NAN) (nannews.ng)
Edited by Olawunmi Ashafa
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