Cap on bank fees to kick in soon

A regulation that is set to control the fees of all banks in Namibia is expected to come into effect at the end of this year.

Speaking during the repurchase rate (repo rate) announcement yesterday, deputy central bank governor Leone Dunn said although the statutory mandate to issue regulations with regards to bank charges lies with the Ministry of Finance, the bank is able to confirm that the regulation has been finalised and consulted on.

During the repo announcement, the Bank of Namibia (BoN) decided to leave the repo rate unchanged at 6.75%.

“The regulation has been finalised and has been consulted on with all the banking institutions, and hopefully should be operational before 2026,” Dunn said.

A recent report by the central bank, the ‘Banking Fees and Charges Comparison Report’, which analyses service fees from seven local banks as of 31 October 2024, shows that Nedbank Namibia (NBN) charges the highest fee at N$31 for debit order payments.

This is followed by Standard Bank Namibia (SBN) at N$30.75, and Namibia Post Limited (NMP) at N$25.90.

Bank BIC offers the lowest fee at N$5.17 per transaction.

Meanwhile, for stop orders, First National Bank (FNB) has the highest interbank stop order fee at N$160, compared to N$31 at NBN and N$30.75 at SBN.

For card replacement fees NBN again leads with the highest charge at N$194.50, followed by SBN (N$194), Bank Windhoek (N$185), and FNB (N$174).

Wallet reversal services for Bank Windhoek was N$32.29, while FNB and SBN each charge N$25.

Bank Windhoek, FNB, Letshego Bank Namibia (LBN), and SBN all offer an external debit order reversal fee at 1.5% on the transaction value, with a cap of N$200.

While most institutions offer free monthly maintenance on basic bank accounts, NamPost is the exception, charging N$22.10.
The same charge applies to pensioner accounts at NamPost, even though other banks waive this fee for retirees.

When it comes to prepaid services FNB charges the most for airtime purchases at N$2.60, followed by Standard Bank at N$2.50 and Nedbank at N$2.10 while BIC and BWK offer the service free of charge.

For bank account confirmation letters, Nedbank again charges the most at N$55, followed by FNB and NamPost at N$50.

BoN governor Johannes !Gawaxab says the decision to maintain the repo rate was taken unanimously by the bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) to safeguard the peg between the Namibia dollar and the South African rand while supporting the domestic economy.

“This policy stance was informed after a thorough review of current and projected domestic, regional and global economic developments,” he says.

According to the governor, domestic inflation has remained subdued since the previous MPC meeting, while growth in private sector credit extension has improved.

Looking ahead, real gross domestic product growth is projected at 3.5% for 2025 and 3.9% for 2026, relative to 3.7% in 2024.

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