STAFF WRITER
The Bank of Namibia Governor Johannes !Gawaxab has painted stark reality of Namibia’s challenges with inequality saying one in every five Namibia are extremely poor.
This means one in every five Namibian live below the poverty datum line.
This means one in every five Namibians live in harsh realities struggling to access basic necessities and fending for a meal.
“ Almost one in five of our people lives below the national poverty line. These are not just statistics — they are the daily struggles of families in our villages, settlements and towns. They are the realities that demand urgent, collective action,” !Gaxab told delegates attending the Alliance for Financial Inclusion Global Policy Forum in Swakopmund on Thursday.
The forum is being attended by more than 80 central bank governors, regulatory institutions, ministers, development partners, and policymakers.
In total there are about 800 delegates.
The theme of this year’s Forum — “Empowering Society, Enabling Growth”
The central bank governor said the reality of high inequality and exclusion is not a Namibian peculiarity but a problem that haunts the whole world and needs urgent redress.
He called on apex bank bosses to find ways of using technology to bridge the inequality gap faced by the poor who struggle to access financial inclusion because of either high banking fees or failure to open bank accounts because of lack of documentation.
!Gawaxab said nearly 700 million people — about 9 percent of the world’s population — still live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $2.15 a day.
He added that in Sub-Saharan Africa, this burden is heavier still: almost one in three people live in such conditions.
“And inequality compounds the problem: the richest 10 percent hold over 70 percent of global wealth, while the poorest half share a mere 2 percent.
“This picture is even more troubling when we consider our youth. Around 260 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are neither in school, nor working, nor in training. That is one in six of our young people worldwide,” he said.
The apex bank governor added that ,” In Namibia, these global realities strike close to home. We speak often of our triple challenge — poverty, inequality, and unemployment. Our unemployment, particularly among the youth, is stubbornly high, and the country still ranks among the most unequal societies in the world, with a Gini coefficient above 0.59.”
According to !Gawaxab the digital revolution continues to be a powerful driver of financial inclusion worldwide, breaking down long-standing barriers to access and usage.
“Digital Financial services reduce transaction costs and enable millions of underserved people to participate in formal financial systems.
There are plenty of rich examples in Africa, including the much-heralded M-Pesa from Kenya. Globally, digital payment solutions, agent banking combined with mobile platforms, have connected millions in remote regions to credit and savings products previously out of reach. Notably, the Aadhaar digital ID system introduced by India stands out as a critical enabler of inclusive, accessible, and scalable financial systems.”
He said Namibia has strengthened its consumer protection frameworks to ensure that, as financial access expands, individuals are shielded from exploitative practices.
“We have implemented an AI-enabled customer complaints platform to enable the timely resolution of consumer complaints and grievance handling within the banking sector.
This progress is complemented by the Ministry of Finance’s enhanced focus on digital financial literacy, equipping citizens to navigate evolving financial technologies safely through the Financial Literacy Initiative” he said.
COMMENTS