The Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA) has opened its second Fintech Square 2023, a platform where the regulator meets the innovator after formally finalising the development of a Sandbox Framework.
According to NAMFISA Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Matomola, the first Fintech Square, which was introduced in August 2022, was created to address the unprecedented global pressure and effects of the Covid-19 pandemic by establishing a governance structure for Non-bank Financial Institutions (NBFI) sandbox.
“For the first Fintech event last year, we were doing some pilots to try and finance our Fintech framework as well as a framework on the sandbox, the main purpose was just to engage so that we could finalise the framework, now it has been finalised and this year we will take in the cohorts as last year we couldn’t because the framework was not finalised, now it is after testing on the first Fintech Square,” he said.
NAMFISA, along with cosponsors GIZ and Prembly, will host the Fintech Square 2023 on May 10th and 11th, 2023 with the aim to engage innovators, particularly youth, regulated entities, fellow regulators, and the general public.
The Regulatory Sandbox will be launched on May 10, 2023, to serve as a platform for new innovators to test their innovative products and services in a live environment with actual clients.
“This will assist the Regulator to learn about new technologies but limit exposure of innovators to the broader market. With this initiative, NAMFISA wants to create an enabling regulatory environment that does not limit innovations within the NBFI sector,” said Matomola.
He further noted that the law-making process has governance structures that are important to ensure NFBI has a robust legislative instrument as digital innovation is moving faster than the legislation.
“Things change and we learn from different external factors such as pandemics and financial crises that occur and force us to be innovative to ensure our survival.
However, this process takes a lot longer, and in order for us to be agile, we need to bring in controlled environments like the sandbox, where we find that certain things are not codified in the law but are useful, and we can study what is going on there to benefit the people more broadly,” he said.
Fintech is a concept that became popular post the 2008 financial crisis, as this innovative technology was able to assist businesses to find innovative means to finance households and SMEs during the crisis period.
Furthermore, the CEO notes that during the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the deployment of this technology became a necessity.
“As we all can remember, we had lockdowns across the world, and this led to a technological revolution as business needed to be conducted from remote locations or from the comfort of our homes. Meetings now have changed from face to face to a virtual or hybrid environment. This has, thus, changed how business and financial services are conducted and offered respectively,” he said.
Although Fintech is a buzzword, Matomola defines it as the technology utilised by innovative businesses to provide financial services in an efficient manner.
“This offers an opportunity not only for existing Non-bank Financial Institutions but smaller innovative businesses to provide solutions on how effective financial services can be offered to consumers.”
The event will be attended by various stakeholders from the Capital Markets Authority of Kenya and Prembly, an innovative Fintech operating in Africa, to share their experiences across Africa, and how technology driven innovation led to financial access and inclusion across Africa.
Matomola said the authority received 30 applications from innovators across Namibia to display their innovations.
“From these 30 applicants, 20 innovators were directly linked to the Non-bank Financial Institutions Sector. Moreover, there are so far 10 innovators that will display exciting technological innovations at this event.”
