Giordano Dell'Amore for Africa: the FINAFRICA Project

The paper reflects and develops the testimony delivered by the author in participating to a round table, together with Tancredi Bianchi, chairman, Alberto Cova, Roberto Mazzotta and Paolo Mottura. It was during a one day conference devoted by Bocconi University to a prominent scholar and banker, Professor Giordano Dell'Amore, its former Rector, and held in Milan on October 2nd, 2013. Minutes of the conference have been recorded and published in a book: T. Bianchi & M. A. Romani, Giordano Dell'Amore, Università Bocconi Editore, Milan, 2013. The ceremony in honour and memory of Giordano Dell'Amore (1902-1981) was attended by municipal and academic authorities, members of the faculty as well as scholars from other Italian universities, his pupils, Bocconi alumni and students. The paper deals with the multiyear activity of Professor Dell'Amore, the author's mentor, in favour of Africa. It particularly focuses on the crucial role played by Giordano Dell'Amore, while serving as Chairman of the Board of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (Cariplo), the savings bank of Lombardy, at that time the largest in the world, in drawing up and implementing the project of Finafrica Foundation, a project fully consistent with the aims of this bank. The papers also highlights the guidance and financial support provided by him to Finafrica, the remarkable institution set up in Milan, mainly during its take-off stage and early development. Professor Dell'Amore, as scholar, had made valuable scientific contributions in understanding the role of financial sector in economic development particularly in underlining the need of strategies to enhance the mobilization of household savings and to supply adequate financial services to rural areas of less developed countries. In his views, Finafrica, within an appropriate cooperation policy framework, by means of providing research, technical assistance and training, could help to improve African banking systems and rural financial markets.