Mozambique: Tax Authority collected 338 billion meticais in 2023
Rogerio Zandamela. Photo: AIM
The Bank of Mozambique is working to find a safe technological solution which reduces the vulnerability of the national banking system to fraud, said the governor of the bank, Rogerio Zandamela on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference in the central city of Quelimane, at the end of a meeting of the Consultative Council of the central bank, Zandamela said important steps had been taken, but gave few details.
He was speaking two days after the electronic system of the commercial banks had been restored, following a five day blackout. The blackout occurred because the Portuguese company Bizfirst, which provides the computer application on which SIMO (Mozambique Interbanking Company) depends, cut SIMO off, claiming that it had not paid Bizfirst for two years.
The debit cards, ATMs and POS (Point of Sale) card readers of banks covered by SIMO stopped working. Since the SIMO system is used for 465,000 domestic and 14,000 foreign transactions a day, the blackout had a serious impact on the Mozambican economy.
SIMO denied that it owed Bizfirst any money, and accused the Portuguese company of “blackmail”. Zandamela went further, and on Tuesday accused Bizfirst of cyber-attacks against the Mozambican banking system.
Nonetheless the banks negotiated with Bizfirst, and the SIMO system was restored on Wednesday against promises to pay Bizfirst 3.5 million euros (about four million US dollars).
As reported in Saturday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, Zandamela told the Quelimane press conference that Bizfirst is not a definitive solution.
“This is a palliative measure, while we are looking for a more secure solution that contributes to the establishment of confidence”, he said.
He insisted that the commercial banks did not operate on their own in contacting Bizfirst, but did so only after discussing the matter with the Bank of Mozambique. Zandamela said the central bank advised the commercial banks to try and understand better what Bizfirst really wanted, and to find a way out that would not damage the national economy and society at large. The meeting with the commercial banks reached the conclusion that each of them had some influence with Bizfirst.
“The solution could not come only from the Bank of Mozambique”, he said. “We had to take measures with the commercial banks, because society was demanding an immediate response.”
Zandamela denied the reports that the commercial banks had gone it alone in their contacts with Bizfirst, marginalising the central bank. This was technologically impossible, he said, pointing out that the Bank of
Mozambique controls the passwords for the SIMO electronic system.
He noted that not all the commercial banks are working with the Bizfirst technological solution. Indeed, the largest commercial bank, the Millennium-BIM (International Bank of Mozambique), has never been part of SIMO, had no undertakings with Bizfirst, and was untouched by the blackout.
Asked whether he intended to resign, as demanded earlier this week by some civil society organisations, Zandamela ruled this possibility out, saying that he had been appointed to the post by President Filipe Nyusi, and would only leave if Nyusi asked him to go.
“I respect people’s opinions”, said Zandamela, “but the most important thing is to find a better technological solution that can contribute to the provision of a good quality service to the clients”.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.