Leonard Haynes, Chief Executive of First National Bank and also President of the Association, was addressing a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics in Windhoek on Tuesday.

He also said that customers receiving services over the counter had to pay higher fees and that electronic transactions were cheaper.

In his short presentation, Haynes, who was accompanied by eight bankers and an investment expert, avoided divulging details on service fees and bank charges.

Instead, he claimed the public had the perception that banks charged high fees because they got "wrong" bank accounts.

"People pay less fees when they have a savings account and can do a limited amount of free withdrawals per month.

For a cheque account the fees are higher," he said, brushing aside queries from Members of Parliament.

Johan de Waal of the DTA stated that ordinary people were in need of the "old-fashioned savings book at the post office, where entries are made by hand and the client can see how much he has saved or withdrawn".

CoD Member Kala Gertze insisted that savings were eroded by service fees charged even if no withdrawals or deposits were made for a year or two.

Swapo MP Hage Geingob, who chairs the Parliamentary Committee, asked the representatives of the four banks present to explain how "Namibianised" they were.

"We are all registered as Namibian companies and are regulated by the reserve bank, the Bank of Namibia," Haynes, who is a South African, replied.

Haynes disclosed that Nedbank Namibia had a South African stake of 81,7 per cent, First National Bank of Namibia had a 60 per cent South African ownership, which would soon change to 55 per cent because of a planned black economic empowerment deal, while Bank Windhoek was 34,4 per cent South African owned.

"Standard Bank is currently being Namibianised," Haynes added.

Geingob noted that 43 per cent of Namibians had no bank accounts.

"This should change," he urged.

The bankers said their institutions were hard at work introducing products tailored for lower-income groups.

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