At least 86% of Namibia’s adult population, or 1 563 688 people, is financially included, an increase from 78% recorded in 2017.
This means having access to useful, affordable, and responsible financial products and services like savings, payments, credit, and insurance critical for poverty reduction and economic growth.
This is contained in the 2025 Namibia Financial Inclusion Survey report released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) on Wednesday.
The report, issued by NSA chief executive Alex Shimuafeni, also states that formal financial inclusion increased to 81.5%, with 75.6% of adults using commercial banking services and 71.3% using other formal non-bank financial institutions.
“Financial inclusion is higher among the urban population, at 91.7%, compared to 79.3% in rural areas, while remaining higher among females (87.6%) than males (84.2%), but the gender gap has narrowed since the previous survey, reflecting continued progress towards more equitable access to financial services,” Shimuafeni says.
He says in Namibia, banking is primarily driven by savings products and services, as well as by transactional activities and remittances.
“About 75.6% of the population aged 15 years and above holds bank accounts, while 18.3% reported having a smart card account, while affordability remained a key barrier to greater uptake of formal financial services, with 43.2% of adults without bank accounts citing insufficient funds to maintain savings as the main reason for not opening an account,” the NSA says.
Shimuafeni says the main advantages cited for having bank accounts include the safety of money from theft (63.6%), ease of sending money (52.3%), and security of remittances (47.3%).
The survey points out that while 40.1% of the urban population can reach a bank within 30 minutes, only 5.7% of the rural population can do so, adding that conversely, 28.3% of rural residents travel more than three hours to reach a bank, compared to just 1.6% of their urban counterparts.
The 2025 survey, which targeted persons aged 15 years and above residing in private households across Namibia, covered all 14 regions of the country, and was designed to produce national-level estimates only.
It followed those conducted in 2004, 2007, 2011 and 2017, and provides nationally representative statistics on financial inclusion, financial capability, and the use of financial products and services.
The survey further highlights that savings continue playing an important role in household financial management, with 72.5% of adults reporting that they save in one form or another.
“Saving through formal mechanisms declined from 60% in 2017 to 53.2% in 2025 while informal savings increased slightly from 2.9% in 2017 to 3.5% in 2025 and a marginal difference was observed in terms of gender, with 72.7% females reporting that they save compared to 72.2% males,” the report states.
As the economic situation worsened, borrowing increased from 42.1% in 2017, to 49% in 2025, with adults reporting that they borrowed money mainly to meet essential household needs such as food (51.3%), education (22.1%) and transport (16.4).
Despite the progress made, the survey indicates that 14% of adults remain financially excluded, down from 22% in 2017.
“Financial exclusion remains higher among males at 15.8% than females with 12.4%, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to reach financially excluded men alongside rural and low-income populations.”
– email: matthew@namibian.com.na
