The Namibian Financial Services Charter seems to have gone into hibernation with the financial sector remaining mum on the subject. The financial sector has been working on the financial charter since last year and presented a draft document to the Ministry of Finance for input earlier this year.

Then everything went quite.To be officially called the Namibian Financial Service Charter, the document has been developed with an objective “of transforming the Namibian financial sector”.
The drafting of the document was led by the CEO of Old Mutual's African operations, Johannes !Gawaxab, who served as the chairperson of the steering committee.
In an earlier interview with the Economist, !Gawaxab said the charter puts forth six “pillars” on which the sector will measure its transformation process.
The pillars are access and affordability of financial services, ownership, skill and human resources development, enterprises development and empowerment of financial institutions, consumer education and protection, and social investments.
“How can we make financial services affordable and accessible to the Namibian public? Perhaps we need to re-design or come up with new financial products that are accessible and affordable. We then ask, what are those products,” said !Gawaxab.
On ownership, !Gawaxab said the industry is looking at specific targets and quotas within a specified time period. On social investments, the sector is deliberating on questions such as how much of the profit must be put aside to be used in social investments.
The sector is also looking at how it can develop and assist small and medium enterprises. The targets or quotas stipulated in the charter are to be achieved in a period of five or 10 years. “Nothing will happen overnight. The idea is to say in the next five or 10 years so much in percentages of ownership, within the sector must be in place,” said !Gawaxab. The Namibia Financial Service Charter took the framework from the “bank's charter” which was developed by the Bankers Association of Namibia. The Bankers Association of Namibia had earlier wanted to have a separate charter of its own, but decided to join the entire sector after the financial sector started mooting the idea of a financial charter for the sector.
“The Bankers Association of Namibia has done much advanced work, and has agreed that the sector use the bank's charter as the basis for the financial charter,” said !Gawaxab.
!Gawaxab said the industry also plans to meet with “stakeholders” for consultation and insight on the charter. The stakeholders include the Ministry of Finance, Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Office of the Prime Minister, Office of Speakers of the National Assembly, and the National Union Workers of Namibia, and state-owned enterprises such as the National Housing Enterprise, Agricultural Bank of Namibia, the Namibia Post Office Limited, and the Social Security Commission.