Nyusi reiterates confidence in Zandamela

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Nyusi reiterates confidence in Zandamela

7:06 CAT | 26 Nov 2018

President Nyusi and Rogério Zandamela. File photo: O Autarca

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has declared his full confidence in the governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Rogerio Zandamela, and has pledged his support to the reforms the central bank is making in the national financial system.

Speaking at a press conference at the end of his visit to Kenya, Nyusi made clear that he did not regard the five day blackout in the electronic transactions system of most of the country’s banks as a reason to sack Zandamela.

The blackout resulted from a dispute over the payment of licence fees between SIMO (Mozambique Interbank Company) and the Portuguese provider of its computer application, Bizfirst. SIMO claimed it had paid everything that was owing while Bizfirst said SIMO was two years in arrears for the licence fee to use the application. Without warning, Bizfirst cut off SIMO.

The sole reason the banking system was not entirely crippled was that the largest commercial bank, the Millennium-BIM, is not part of SIMO, and so its debit cards, ATMs and other electronic systems were unaffected.

In the wake of the blackout, a group of civil society organisations demanded that Zandamela be sacked. But, cited by the independent television station STV, Nyusi made it clear that he continues to trust Zandamela. “We shall continue to collaborate and to encourage the regulator, the central bank to go on working naturally, ensuring that the economy flows normally and without any disturbance”, he said.

When the time came “to change the way in which we do things, we should avoid the tendency to resist”, he added, presumably referring to Zandamela’s determination to move away from Bizfirst and use a different provider. “We must have a cool head, so that when there is a problem, we can solve it and not panic or look for this or that explanation. The central bank is doing its part, regulating things, and it’s up to us to do our part”.

Nyusi said he is open to pressure, but always from the perspective of improving performance. “The truth is that pressure on any institution is necessary when things are going badly, or when they should evolve. But the blackout was not the result of any malfunctioning of the bank management. It was because the system existed in one way, and had to shift to a different way. What we are doing with the bank is to find immediate solutions, but also definitive solutions”.

“We have to defend our sovereignty”, added Nyusi, “and one of the ways of doing so is through our currency, it’s how our whole economy functions. We cannot be held hostage by a process”.

Nyusi did not believe there has been any ill-will involved in the blackout. Instead, there had been an attempt “to bring things back into line”.

Source: AIM