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NAMIBIA:Basic bank accounts reach 136 000
THE number of basic bank accounts held at commercial banks have reached 136 200, central bank governor Ipumbu Shiimi said on Friday.
The basic accounts were launched three years ago by the central bank and commercial banks to empower more Namibians to become part of the formal banking sector and have access to basic financial services.
On Friday, the payment industry launched a new National Payments System dubbed Vision 2020.
The launched was done by the Bank of Namibia, Payments Association of Namibia (PAN), commercial banks and other payment industry stakeholders. The system will run for five years from 2016 to 2020.
Shiimi said the system is an internationally reputable system and will safeguard the interests of all stakeholders in support of Vision 2030.
He said the old system which ran from 2011 and will end this year made significant strides towards the implementation of the financial sector strategy.
Shiimi said some of the notable achievements to date are setting standards for a basic bank account and cash deposit fees.
He said promoting financial inclusion include the implementation of instruments such as e-money.
To date, the country has four separate authorised non-bank e-money issuers namely Mobicash Payment Solutions known as Mobipay, Nammic Payment Solutions, Virtual Technology Services and Magnet Payment Solutions.
Namibia has also implemented the SADC Integrated Regional Electronic Settlement System (Siress) which allows banks within SADC to make transactions directly to one another, the governor said.
“The international payments industry is trending towards e-money services. For Namibia, e-money is crucial to growth in unbanked sectors of the population,” he said.
Shiimi said provision and availability of e-money and mobile payment services in Namibia further promotes financial services to the unbanked community. He said it is expected that e-money will be a key vehicle for payments and financial inclusion in the future.
“We will continue with the reforms,” Shiimi said adding that the central bank wants to see that there is competition in the market.
“Let us make things happen. Without a vision, you will perish,” the central bank chief said.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Speaking at the same event, deputy chairperson of the Bankers' Association of Namibia (BAN), Tawanda Mumvuma said the association has done a lot to achieve most objectives in the old system.
“We want to ensure that the country is internationally and regionally competitive in the payments system,” he said.
Chairperson of the PAN Lily Brandt elaborated on the successes and achievements of the PAN's vision 2015.
“We will build on what we have built in the past 5 years,” she said adding that they will continue to participate and invest time in making sure that vision 2020 comes to realisation.
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