| Bank account holders increase in four years |
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| Written by Staff Reporters | ||||
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The number of Namibians with bank accounts has increased over the past four years. However, more than half the adult population still does not use any type of financial service, either formal or informal, according to the findings of the FinScope survey launched this week in Windhoek.
The survey notes that a number of innovative entry level products have
been launched recently, such as Easy Save, Card Wise, First Save and
the NamPost Savings Account (smart card). Although people are using
these products, the uptake has been low; 53.8% of the respondents had
never heard of them, raising the question of whether these products are
really reaching the unbanked market. The survey suggests a combination of marketing inefficiencies and a lack of financial literacy as reasons for failing to bring more people into the financial sector. This points to the importance of consumer education to change traditional views of the financial system if innovations in product design and delivery are to succeed in lifting levels of financial inclusion. “The perceived inability to meet requirements, despite the introduction of entry level products with less stringent terms, suggests a gap between the marketing of products to consumers, and consumers understanding of these products,” said Christiaan Keulder of Research Facilitation Services, which conducted the research for FinMark Trust. FinScope is a nationally representative survey for financial use and behaviour. It covers financial services available from formal providers, such as banks, micro-finance institutions and insurance companies, as well as informal services such as savings clubs, and provides insights into how consumers source their income and manage their financial lives. This is the second such survey to be conducted in Namibia. The first was carried out in 2004. The level of financially inclusion has not changed significantly since 2004. In 2007, 45.3% of the adult population was formally banked; another 1.5% used some other kind of formal product such as insurance; and a further 1.5% used only informal providers. |
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