Banking access for union members

Approximately 200,000 union members country wide stand to benefit financially from the new innovative Nam-mic payment solution, Cellcard. This is the second mobile payment service provider to enter the local market.
According to John Shaetonhodi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nam-mic Payment Solutions, Nam-mic Financial Service Holdings whose majority ownership are NUNW affiliated unions, created Nam-mic Payment Solutions for the union’s administration system that issues membership cards to union members and can be used as debit cards too.
“With this initiative came the strategy to bring a low cost banking product that operates at a fraction of traditional banking accounts but which allows members access to their accounts through mobile phone, card and internet based technology,” he said.
He indicated that the company wants to enroll all affiliated NUNW union members to form the basis of a Trade Union Administration System whereby each Union will know their members, where they work, their salaries and gender distributions per employer.
He said such a system would empower the unions to bargain more effectively, having up to date information at their disposal. “The issuing of a membership card to each union member is just the beginning. The Nam-mic CellCard must add benefit to the end user. With this in mind we have positioned the cost of our product to be the most affordable payment instrument in the marketplace,” he added.
Speaking on behalf of the Governor of the Bank of Namibia, Ndangi Katoma, director: department of strategic communications and financial sector development at the bank, said, that the Bank welcomes the Nam-mic Payment Solution because it comes at a time when there is a greater need to find accessible, affordable and inclusive payment services to extend financial services to the excluded community.
Ndangi Katoma of the Bank of Namibia said they have identified financial inclusion to be an important thrust in the Bank’s developmental role in achieving the ideals of Vision 2030. The Bank, therefore, has made financial inclusion one of its key strategic objectives.