WINDHOEK: Namibians intending to send money to South Africa through electronic fund transfers will have to pay more bank charges and wait longer for the money to reflect . This follows a decision by the Common Monetary Area ( CMA ) regulators to discontinue processing electronic fund transfer ( EFT ) payments and collections within the CMA , effective 09 September 2024 . The Bank of Namibia ( BoN ) has , however , extended the date to 30 September . The Common Monetary Area links South Africa , Namibia , Lesotho , and Eswatini into a monetary union . The implementation will also directly affect debit orders , in that debit order deductions to and from South Africa will no longer be allowed . In an interview with Nampa on Wednesday , Bank of Namibia Principal Economist for Payments , Policy Research and Analysis , Henock Shilongo said they have issued a directive instructing banks to ensure that Namibian recipients receive their funds within two business days when such funds are sent from South Africa or other
CMA countries . ‘ This is to ensure that Namibian banks do not unreasonably delay the processing of inward payments to their customers ,’ Shikongo said . He further said the central bank ‘ s directive also regulates banking charges for both outward cross – payments and inward cross – border payments to other CMA countries . Outward cross – border payments are capped at N . dollars 20 for transactions below N . dollars 1 million and at N . dollars 30 for transactions between N . dollars 1 million and N . dollars 5 million . For inward cross – border payments , transactions are capped at N . dollars 25 for transactions below N . dollars 1 million and at N . dollars 35 for transactions between N . dollars 1 million and N . dollars 5 million . ‘ This is to ensure they do not charge high amounts because they initially wanted to charge more . The new CMA directive is mainly for the benefit of the country because we are currently greylisted . We are thus trying to fight money laundering and tax evasion . We will now
be able to properly monitor these transactions because most of the companies were using this loophole to disguise payments to and from SA and we were missing out on import duties and tax ,’ Shilongo said . Shilongo also explained that the new directive will not affect the Namibia Dollar pegging to the Rand , adding that it also does not affect the proposal of a unified currency and African Monetary Union ( AMU ) by the African Union , administered by the African Central Bank
Source: The Namibia News Agency