Richard Southey, Head of Cash Management, Africa, Barclays and Absa concludes in his introduction to this detailed handbook that: 'For any corporate looking to do business in Africa.....treasurers should be mindful of the infrastructure of delivery; the need for regional visibility and control of cash, and the logistical and security challenges associated with operating in the continent.' But that is the problem with the African continent. It is so difficult for corporate treasurers to find out exactly cash and treasury management techniques and strategies can be implemented in each of the 54 countries in Africa. This where this handbook comes in, it provides considerable details on:

• general background on the country and its government
• sectoral distribution and other details on the economy
• country credit rating
• legal and regulatory framework, exchange controls, and anti-money laundering
• tax, including the authority, tax year filing, etc
• banks, payment systems, electronic banking and cash management
• trade finance and useful contacts.

A comprehensive handbook like this requires input from many contributors as well as WWCP. These included Deloittes' tax team, BCL Burton Copeland, Bankers Almanac, Copp Clark, CMA and Barclays - Stephen Pigney gets a special mention. WWCP and Barclays plan to update this handbook regularly.

'The Treasury Managers' Handbook for Africa' is available from WWCP for £55 and, I suspect, free from Barclays if you are a corporate customer.

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This is now THE reference handbook for cash management in Africa. Barclays‘ long-term commitment to this project has paid off.