West African Bankers' Association West African Bankers' Association The West African Bankers' Association (WABA; ) is a professional association of banking and financial services and institutions in West Africa. It has its headquarters and offices in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The WABA was created in August 10, 1981 with the main purpose of supporting and developing the West African Clearing House (WACH). The organization has banking, securities, and auditing institutions, and individual members. The secretary general is Sega Balde, with Rev Ifeanyi IWANDE as president. The central banks
History of Liberia the country, who constitute the majority of the population. Years of civil war have disrupted the country and its economy. Historians believe that many of the indigenous peoples of Liberia migrated there from the north and east between the 12th and 16th centuries AD. Portuguese explorers established contacts with people of the land later known as "Liberia" as early as 1462. They named the area "Costa da Pimentia" (Pepper Coast), or Grain Coast, because of the abundance of melegueta pepper, which became desired in European cooking. In 1602 the Dutch established a trading post at Grand Cape Mount but destroyed