The Banker has conferred on 4 January 2023 its 2023 Central Banker of the Year award for Africa to the Governor of the Bank of Mauritius, Harvesh Seegolam.
According to a press communiqué, it is said that The Banker, a London-based publication owned by the Financial Times of UK, has bestowed this accolade upon Governor Seegolam in recognition of his “stewardship of the country’s financial sector through one of its most challenging periods in recent history” since becoming one of the world’s youngest central bank governors in March 2020.
The Banker’s Central Banker of the Year 2023 Awards celebrate the officials who have best managed to stimulate growth and stabilise their economies. An Awards Ceremony will be held soon.
Here is an extract of what the magazine has to say about Governor Harvesh Kumar Seegolam:
“In addition to supporting the Mauritian banking sector through the Covid-19 crisis (which saw the economy shrink by 15% in 2020). Via the Bank of Mauritius (BoM) support scheme, Mr Seegolam has had to work hard to win back the trust of international institutions, following a grey listing of the country by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and a 2020 blacklisting by the EU, for perceived deficiencies in the country’s anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing frameworks. Such efforts have borne fruits; the FATF has removed the country from its grey list in December 2021, with the EU following suit in early 2022.
The BoM has been active in working to combat inflation, which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates will peak at 10.2% before falling back in 2023. The Central Bank raised the rates in March 2022 for the first time in 11 years, with 3 subsequent rises taking the country’s key repo rate to 4% by early November and has made several interventions on the domestic foreign exchange market to support the Mauritian rupee, even as foreign currency inflows increased with the recovery of the tourism sector. It was reported in early November that the Central Bank was advising the government on a possible environmental, social and governance debt issuance, its first foreign bond since 2000.
In addition to maintaining financial stability, the BoM has been active in helping advance a digital agenda for the banking sector. The Central Bank introduced a licensing scheme for digital-only banks in December 2021 and has subsequently received enquiries from “a cohort of well-established foreign banks” being interested in taking advantage of such opportunities.
The BoM is also working on the introduction of a retail central bank digital currency. The digital rupee, which will use a two-tier hybrid model, is being developed in collaboration with the IMF, and is intended for use by consumers and businesses alike.”
