February 25 to 26, 2013 The World Bank will organize a roundtable discussion on Switch Integration in West Africa - The theme of the roundtable is "Getting off the Starting Blocks  Hitting the Stride.
It will be held at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra, Ghana from February 25 to 26, 2013. The World Bank is primarily using the roundtable as a collaborative instrument and organizing approach for a technical and exploratory discussion with national switch operators from
Ghana, Nigeria and UEMOA region.
The objectives are in two folds.
The first objective is to have a discussion concerning the technical aspects related to the payments infrastructure, network services, and business models including settlement arrangements that would make the integration of the switches from the three territories feasible. The second
objective is to develop a strategic roadmap that shows possible paths to the future of cross-border payments in ECOWAS.
The major outputs from the roundtable will be shared with regional central banks and ministries of
finance in ECOWAS as well as the ECOWAS Commission.
This will provide a basis for a strategic policy dialogue with senior officials on
cross-border payment issues.
The dialogue will involve, among other areas, a focus on identifying policy priorities and other crucial needs for capacity-building that senior officials need to be aware of relating to enhancing domestic payment services, harmonization and integration of technical platforms in order to facilitate cross-border payment services.
In this regard, the Ghana event is the starting point that puts in motion a long-range process to be supplemented by support from policymakers in ECOWAS member states focused on boosting coordination and industry alignment around common standards and regulation, protecting the
integrity of systems and users and scaling-up usage of electronic payment services. About 30 people consisting of participants, facilitators and speakers are expected to attend this event - each switch operator party will comprise at least the chief executive officer, chief information
officer and head of business development as well as a representative from a regional financial institution and other payment service providers keenly involved in the topic of cross-border payment services in their country.
Contact: Thilasoni B. Musuku & Patrick Elat Email:
tmusuku@worldbank.org or pelat@worldbank.org