Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Banner Left
Banner Right

SADC central banks look into single payment system

SADC central banks look into single payment system

THE central banks of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are setting up systems that will ultimately result in a single payment and settlement system for the 15-state region, according to South African Reserve Bank national payment system department head Dave Mitchell.

The region includes Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Mitchell reported that 12 of the 15 states had implemented gross real-time settlement systems, which meant that they had the means to conduct immediate electronic settlements.
Three countries had not achieved this level of service: the Seychelles, Madagascar and the DRC, where a largely unbanked population conducted mostly cash transactions.
Speaking after a conference on national payment and settlement systems, organised by the World Bank in Cape Town on Thursday, Mitchell said the SADC was working to mirror the EU’s economic integration model, which would include, ultimately, one central bank, one multinational payment and settlement system and one currency. He could not provide time frames for all these goals and emphasised that he could not talk on behalf of the SADC.
He said the cost of banking transactions was often abnormally high as a result of high banking fees, a multiplicity of banking regimes and foreign exchange fees imposed by the various countries.
Mitchell said that in some states the speed of transactions had improved dramatically.
In some cases it took nearly a month to clear a cheque but in South Africa this was now conducted in real time.
Payment systems include not only clearing cheques and electronic and card transactions between banks but also the entire payment process, including final settlement between banks at the central bank.
Macroeconomic targets and exchange control regulatory convergence ‘cannot happen overnight’, Mitchell said. However, it was envisaged that there would be one central bank for the region ‘in 10 years’.
The banks were working on reducing the costs of remittances – payments to family and friends from workers who were working outside their countries.
Massimo Cirasino, who heads the World Bank’s payment systems development group, said it could cost up to about N$450 to make a transfer to another SADC country from South Africa. This forced people to send cash with taxi drivers.
-Business Report

Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!

Latest News