On Tuesday 26 August 2025, the CEO of the Mauritius Bankers Association, Mr. Daniel Essoo, had a working session with Ms. Bongi Kunene, Managing Director of The Banking Association South Africa (BASA), at the association’s headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mr. Essoo also met with Ms. Maxine Hlaba, General Manager of the SADC Banking Association on the occasion.
“It was an honour to meet with Ms. Kunene, and Ms. Hlaba, in order to take stock of the collective power of banking in the region. We discussed some of BASA’s recent projects, which include access to finance for SMEs, and public private collaboration in the fight against corruption. The association has set up a digital information repository, and has engaged in the training of law enforcement officers in financial crime investigation, which is particularly interesting,” stated Mr. Essoo.
The discussions with the SADC BA centred on geopolitical developments, the latest evolution in cross border payments system as well as the ESAAMLG mutual evaluation process with the SADC BA. The SADC BA regroups banking associations of all SADC countries, and the CEO of the MBA forms part of its Council. New avenues of collaboration are now in the pipeline following this exchange of best practices between the MBA, BASA, and the SADC BA.