Financially excluded population in Namibia has decreased: NSA

WINDHOEK, 13 AUG  – The proportion of the financially excluded population in Namibia decreased to 22 per cent in 2017 from the 51 per cent reported in 2007.
This was revealed by the Statistician General of the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), Alex Shimuafeni when he launched the 2017 Namibia Financial Inclusion Survey (NFIS) report here on Monday.
The survey is aimed at measuring the level of financial inclusion inclusive of formal and informal usage and identifying the drivers and barriers to the usage of financial products and services amongst others.
“The NFIS has recorded some positive changes in the level of financial inclusion expansion and improved efficiency in the financial system, although there is still room for improvement,” he said.
Shimuafeni said 78 per cent of Namibian adults are financially included of which 72.6 are formerly served and 23.9 per cent make use of informal financial mechanisms.
Banking in Namibia, he noted, is mainly driven by savings products and services, remittances and transactions.
While 67.9 per cent of the adult population have bank accounts, 22.0 per cent reported having smart card accounts.
Further analysis of the 2017 NFIS shows that 62.5 per cent of income earners receive their income as hard cash compared to the 37.1 per cent who receive their income through bank accounts.
Only 1.4 per cent reported receiving their income through bank wallets.
The report also showed that 34.4 per cent of the adult population travel between 30 and 60 minutes to reach a bank, while 4.2 per cent travels for more than three hours to reach a bank.
Ownership of identity documents and passports, which are some of the main requirements for the use of formal banking products and services, is high at 88.3 per cent.
Most eligible Namibians mainly earn income through salaries/wages from private companies at 17.3 per cent, followed by government/parastatals at 10.3 per cent and government old age pension at 9.9 per cent.
The 2017 NFIS was the fourth of its kind to be conducted in Namibia, but was the first for NSA.
The first three financial inclusion surveys were conducted in 2004, 2007, and 2011 respectively, through the FinScope survey of FinMark Trust, an independent trust based in South Africa. NAMPA