COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BANKS AND DOCUMENT ISSUERS IS KEY TO BOOST DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES

Maputo, 10 Jan (AIM) – The Governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Rogério Zandamela, believes that the interoperability of financial services, as well as strategic communication between banks and the State entities that issue documents, are fundamental mechanisms to boost the use of digital financial services in Mozambique.

Zandamela, who was speaking in an interview published recently in the Bank of Mozambique’s magazine on Financial Inclusion, also said banks must know their customers properly and know how to fight against money laundering in order to boost the use of digital financial services in the country.

“The National Financial Inclusion Strategy (2016 -2022) established the need to ensure effective interoperability between financial system institutions operating in the domestic market”, the governor said.

According to Zandamela, the services offered by electronic money institutions have been gaining space in Mozambique, although electronic payments have been hindered by the lack of interconnection of the operators of banking institutions.

“This means that clients of each operator could not send money to numbers of other operators, nor receive from them. This situation reduced by half electronic payment use and greatly affected the use of financial services by the majority of the population”, Zandamela claimed.

With interoperability, he said. one of the objectives of financial inclusion was achieved, which was to bring the low income population, in the rural areas, into the formal system for stimulating electronic payments.

Taking into account the growth of electronic payments, the Mozambican banking sector, in 2022, recorded profits of around 13.1 billion meticais (about 205 million dollars, at the current exchange rate).

This is an increase of 2.2 billion meticais when compared to the same period in 2021.
(AIM)
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