Mr. P. Blama Malik Siryon, a confident and competent results-driven Chartered Accountant (CA) and Financial Sector Development Policy Economist became the Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Liberian Bank for Development & Investment (LBDI) effective July 1, 2023.  

 

Mr. Siryon has 15 years of cumulative experience with specific expertise in Financial Sector Regulation as well as banking and extractive sectors financial management. He served the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) for 6 years in various capacities –Bank Examiner II; Senior Bank Examiner; Principal Bank Examiner; Principal Internal Auditor; and Assistant Director for Financial Reporting. Prior to these positions, he served as Account Officer; Payroll Administrator; Accountant; and Assistant Finance Manager of Bea Mountain Mining Corporation—a subsidiary of the Mano River Resources Group of Companies, now Avesoro Mining Inc.

 

He obtained his high school diploma, a diploma in Accounting, and WAEC certificate (Division 1) from the Booker Washington Technical Institute (BWI) in 2006; Thereafter, he earned an Associate of Business Administration (Magna Cum Laude) with an emphasis in Accounting from the Stella Maris Polytechnic in 2012; a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the Stella Maris Polytechnic in 2014; a Master of Business Administration (MBA), with an emphasis in Accounting, from the Cuttington University Graduate School of Professional Studies in 2016; and a Master in Policy Economics (MaPE) from the Center for Development Economics (CDE), Williams College, Massachusetts, United States of America (USA) in 2022.   In 2015, Mr. Siryon Passed the prescribed Examinations and became Qualified as a Member of the Association of Accounting Technicians Scheme of West Africa (ATSWA); he completed his Professional Accounting qualification in May 2020 and was admitted in November 2022 as a Professional Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants-Ghana (ICAG). 

 

Mr. Siryon has distinguished expertise in financial planning, financial management, investment analysis, credit-risk analysis, auditing, business valuation, bank examination, tax planning, economic policy formulation, analytics, evaluation, and implementations. Additionally, he has vast practical knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs)—especially those that deal with the identification, measurement, classification, and impairment of financial instruments.

 

Mr. Siryon has several professional certificates from various training programs. These include Cross Border Banking Supervision; Advance Banking Supervision; Combating Money Laundering; Combating Financial Crimes; Introduction to Basel II; Internal auditing, taxation, and its multiple dimensions; from the West African Institute of Financial & Economic Management (WAIFEM); The IMF AFRITAC WEST-2, and the Liberian Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  

 

Mr. Siryon is a part-time lecturer of Accounting and Public Sector Economics at Stella Maris Polytechnic University, Monrovia, Liberia. With his broader understanding of the macro-economic and fiscal challenges confronting Liberia, Mr. Siryon’s  graduate papers included: “Rethinking Natural Resource Taxation in Liberia; An empirical  critique of Liberia’s 2021 Debt Sustainability Analysis; Assessment of Liberia’s long-term fiscal Challenges; Sensitivity Analysis of Liberia’s Exposure to Climate Hazard; Enhancing Liberia Natural Capital in attaining intergenerational Equity; Liberia’s Tax Reform Policy—The benefits of VAT over GST; Nigeria Digital Currency Regime (eNaira): Implications and Challenges; and The Long-term Fiscal impacts of Urbanization in Liberia