Close to 40 people turned up for the Namibia Financial Sector Transformation Strategy (NFSTS) engagement meeting which took place on 16 January 2025 at Oshakati.
The meeting discussed the draft new Namibia Financial Sector Transformation Strategy which will run until 2035.
The strategy is replacing the one which has been in place from 2011 until now although it was supposed to have ended in 2021.
Mr Erwin Naimwaka, a representative from the Bank of Namibia, said that Bank of Namibia, NAMFISA, Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade, and the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises have been tasked with coming up with a new financial sector transformation strategy.
“The aim of the financial sector transformation strategy is to facilitate development,” Naimwaka said.
“We are wrestling with many developmental challenges. So what is the role of the financial sector in development? How do we ensure it plays its role effectively?
“Overall, the aims and objectives of the strategy remain the same, to facilitate development. We are here to get your inputs and experiences with the financial sector.”
The strategy aims at charting the future direction of the financial system, its contributions to the Namibian economy over the next 10 years and ensure that the financial sector remains effective, competitive, inclusive, resilient and relevant to Namibia’s development purposes.
The stakeholder engagements on the new strategy are expected to consult across the country with individuals and organisations involved in informal business activities, small and medium enterprises, saving groups and credit cooperatives, microlenders, and financial technology experts.
Ms Rosalia Mbodi, a policy analyst at NAMFISA, made a presentation which explained the five pillars of the strategy.
The pillars are: Financial Sector Development for Growth and Sustainability; the Digital Transformation and Innovation; the Financial Access, Literacy and Protection; the Financial Sector Localisation; and the Skills and Capacity Development.
Only the pillar on Digital Transformation and Innovation is new, all the other pillars already existed in the old strategy.
However, Mr Naimwaka did not say what was wrong with the old strategy which is being replaced, or what were the challenges it faced.
Namibia is one of the countries in the world whose financial sectors are in the hands of a few individuals, and its economy is one of the most unequal economies in the world.
In the photo: Ms Rosalia Mbodi talking to those who turned up at the Oshakati engagement.
