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An IMF technical assistance report, released on Friday, identified weaknesses in Burundi\u2019s monetary and financial statistics and financial soundness indicators, which are used to monitor banking-sector risks and guide economic policy.<\/p>\n
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The assessment followed an IMF mission to the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (BRB) in Bujumbura from April 28 to May 9, 2025.<\/p>\n
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Burundi\u2019s financial system is dominated by commercial banks. At the end of 2024, the country had 14 commercial banks, comprising nine under domestic control and five under foreign control.<\/p>\n
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Commercial banks accounted for 81% of financial corporations\u2019 balance sheets, excluding the central bank. Burundi also had 49 deposit-taking microfinance institutions, while other financial corporations represented 3.2% of the financial system.<\/p>\n
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The IMF identified inconsistencies in data submitted by banks, including missing information on accrued interest, differences between detailed statements and balance sheets and incomplete reporting of some items.<\/p>\n
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The Fund recommended stronger validation controls, including \u201cblocking\u201d rules that would automatically reject non-compliant submissions.<\/p>\n
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The BRB should also reconcile monetary statistics compiled under the existing and new methodologies, correct discrepancies and document the reasons for any differences.<\/p>\n
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The IMF raised particular concerns about Burundi\u2019s capacity to implement IFRS 9, which requires banks to use forward-looking models to estimate expected credit losses.<\/p>\n
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Implementation requires expertise in econometrics, applied statistics, data science and risk management.<\/p>\n
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The IMF warned that limited technical capacity could compromise the quality of bank provisions and the financial soundness indicators used to assess the sector.<\/p>\n
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The Fund recommended assigning or recruiting at least two specialists with experience in quantitative techniques to strengthen the BRB\u2019s supervision and financial stability statistics unit.<\/p>\n
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Burundi has not regularly submitted financial soundness indicators to the IMF since 2019.<\/p>\n
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However, BRB staff generated banking-sector indicators covering 2019 to 2025, creating the basis for regular reporting to resume after additional checks and reconciliation.<\/p>\n
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The BRB is also automating production of monetary statistics and financial soundness indicators. About 80% of the required banking annexes had been integrated into the system during the IMF mission.<\/p>\n
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The IMF said automation should improve data consistency and reliability while reducing manual work, errors and dependence on individual expertise.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–IMF\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":46555,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-46554","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Burundi should strengthen banking data, statistical controls and financial supervision as the country prepares to implement more advanced international accounting standards, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says.","published_date":"","news_description":"Burundi should strengthen banking data, statistical controls and financial supervision as the country prepares to implement more advanced international accounting standards, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46556,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46554\/revisions\/46556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=46554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}