Namfisa wants public input on Consumer Credit Policy

The Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) is calling on the public to provide input to the Consumer Credit Policy which would ultimately guide the development of a Consumer Credit Bill in Namibia.

Namfisa said there is a need to identify the ideal way of reforming a fragmented market conduct oversight function on credit, currently falling under the mandate of different legislation and institutions.

Currently, there are legislative limitations on the regulatory and supervisory framework governing agreements on consumer credit in Namibia’s financial sector as the current legislation lacks robust provisions on effective consumer protection against unfair market practices, because the only credit extended under the scope of market conduct supervision, is that extended by the banks and microlenders.

Credit extended by retailers for example, is not supervised against unfair market conduct, although such loans are also financial products. As a result, there is a fragmentation in the regulation and oversight of credit, with limited impact on indebtedness of households and desired market conduct in general.

Namfisa is leading a project together with representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Namibia, Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade, Financial Literacy Initiative and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit to address the legislatives challenges in the form of the Consumer Credit Policy.

The public is encouraged to submit their comments via the Comments Template on or before 31 July 2020. The policy document as well as the comment template is available to the public on NAMFISA’s website www.namfisa.com.na/publications