Nyusi pledges continued expansion of financial services

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Nyusi pledges continued expansion of financial services

10:12 CAT | 19 Sep 2018

Photo: Supplied

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday urged managers of the country’s largest commercial bank, the Millennium-BIM (International Bank of Mozambique), to continue taking financial services into rural areas.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a BIM branch in the coastal district of Mossuril, as part of a working visit to the northern province of Nampula. This is the first branch of any commercial bank in the district, and it means that Mossuril will no longer depend on banking services provided in neighbouring districts (Nacala, Monapo or Mozambique Island).

The inauguration of the Mossuril bank was part of the government project “One District, One Bank”, intended to implement the “National Financial Inclusion Strategy” for the period 2016-2022.

The aim is to ensure that all districts in the country have at least one bank branch and that by 2022 more than half the population have a point of access to financial services within five kilometres of their workplace or residence. Also by that year, 35 per cent of the adult population should have a bank account in a formal financial institution.

Nyusi told the Mossuril crowd that the inauguration of the new branch sends the message that the government is committed to expanding financial services throughout the country, especially in rural areas.

“It is further evidence that the government places rural development at the heart of its governance actions, since over 70 per cent of our people live in the countryside”, he added.

“With the gradual recovery of the macro-economic and financial indicators, it is the government’s interest that the banks should continue being the machine that stimulates financial mobility, facilitating the use of this resource to lever the economy as a whole”, said Nyusi.

He urged Millennium-BIM, and all the other commercial banks, to implement programmes of financial education, so that their clients improve their financial knowledge, and are encouraged to save.

Nyusi pledged that the government will strengthen banking supervision, to minimise the contagious effect of international crises on the Mozambican financial system.

Source: AIM