TRADE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE EVENTS AND TRAINING PROGRAMME 2009

Doing Business in Africa Seminar – Africa Day 2009

Exporting to the Enlarged European Union Seminar

Ireland-Africa Business Summit 2009

Micro Credit Schemes and MFIs as tools of Poverty Reduction in Africa Workshop

Public-Private Partnerships: Harnessing Partnerships to Drive Development Seminar

SMEs and the Environment: Extracting Sustainable Value from Climate Change Workshop

The Business of Climate Change Conference

Afolayan participates in seminar on Social Banking and Micro Credit Scheme

Joe Afolayan, Chief Executive Officer of the Trade Development Centre (TDC) participated in the bi-annual Institute of Social Banking International Summer School. Titled “Social Banking: Profit for People and Planet”, it took place from July 27 to August 1, 2008 in Ronde/Kalo, near Arhus in Denmark.

The Social Banking Summer School was attended by up to 80 outstanding mainstream bankers, social bankers and other professionals from the public, private and NGO sectors. Part of what made this year’s summer school unique was that participants were drawn from over 30 countries.

Sessions included “Sustainability challenges and social banking”, “Established Social Banking Products and Services”, New Developments for/in Social Banking”, Organisational and Individual Competencies for Social Bankers” and “Prospects for Social Banking”. The sessions were a great mix of theory and interaction.

The Summer School faculty included Mr. Lars Pehrson, CEO, Merkur Bank, Denmark; Mr. Paul Mackay, Co-founder of Triodos Bank in the Netherlands; Mr. Lars Hektoen, CEO, Cultura Bank, Norway; Mr. Peter Blom, CEO, Triodos Bank, Netherlands; Ms. Maja Gopel, campaign Manager, World Future Council; Mr. Ugo Biggeri, Co-founder, Banca Etica, Italy; Ms. Ulrike Lohr, Research Officer, Bank Track; Ms. Britt Marie Lundh, Board member, Ekobanken, Sweden; Mr. Julian Kuhn, Managing Director, Institute of Social Banking, Germany; Mr. Bart Jan Krouwel, Managing Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Rabobank Group, Netherlands; Mr. Andreas Neukrich, Board Member, GLS Bank, Germany; and 15 other quality speakers from various organisations.

In 2006, ten socially oriented European Banks and Financial Service Providers – amongst them GLS Bank and Triodos Bank – founded the Institute of Social Banking (ISB) in Bochum, Germany. The ISB develops special training programmes in order to enable individuals to think independently, innovatively and to actively engage in social ventures.

“The sessions were inspiring and very informative. I am energized and motivated to go back to work and provide capacity building programmes for the over 800 newly approved micro-finance banks in Nigeria, as well as advise local, state and federal governments on micro-credit schemes in a socially responsible manner. This is in line with our corporate objective of using trade, investment and micro-credit schemes as tools of poverty reduction in Africa”, said Mr. Afolayan.