FIC
keynote address
REBUILD, REINVENT AND REJUVENATE Former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene urged finance and government to work together.
F
BY CAYLYNNE FOURIE
orty of South Africa’s leading CFOs gathered at Summer Place in Hyde Park in October, to launch the first-ever Finance Indaba Conversations. While enjoying a scrumptious breakfast, the finance professionals were captivated by a keynote address from former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene. “There are three things that keep me awake at night: economy, economy and economy,” said Nene, who is now running a family business in Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, chairs the boards of Thebe Investment Corporation and the Pan African Arise Bank, and is a non-executive director of Grobank.
nomic growth rate to higher than three percent growth over a sustainable period. And finance has a big role to play in achieving that.” He explained that for any system to work, however well it is designed, it requires human capital, and finance professionals are those people. “Finance institutions and markets provide a framework for carrying out economic transactions and monetary policy, they help to channel the nation’s savings into investment and, by doing so, they support and drive economic growth.” Nene added that, for central banks, the financial system is the key transmission mechanism for monetary policy decisions that are made on a regular basis. Therefore problems in financial systems not only disrupt financial intermediation,
“As a nation, we need to knuckle down and do some hard work to pull our economy up, raise the eco-
6
