BNA governor wants expansion of bank branches across the country.

The governor of the National Bank of Angola (BNA) Manuel António Dias has instructed commercial banks to expand their services throughout the territory, taking into account their contribution to greater integration of the population with financial institutions.

Manuel António Dias, who was speaking to the press at the end of a visit to the city of Menongue, province of Cuando Cubango, highlighted that the expansion of banking services is fundamental, taking into account "its contribution to greater integration of the population with banks”.

The BNA has guided commercial banks to open branches across the country, with emphasis on Cuando Cubango, which only has bank representations in five of the nine municipalities that make up the province.

In the near future, the BNA, in partnership with commercial banks, will carry out an assessment of the services provided by branches and banking correspondents, to determine whether they have met the expectations generated in terms of growth and development of banking institutions in the country.

“The levels of financial literacy and the provision of banking services in the national territory are around 30 percent of the population, a very insignificant number, but which can be improved with greater financial inclusion” he revealed.

For his part, the governor of Cuando Cubango, José Martins said that the province is struggling with a lack of banking services that extends throughout the national territory, where the Banco de Poupança e Crédito (BPC) leads the statistics in the number of branches and representations in five of the nine municipalities in the region, mainly Menongue, Cuchi, Cuito Cuanavale, Mavinga and Calai.

The lack of representation in other municipalities in the province "has created countless disruptions in the lives of populations, who are forced to travel long distances to make a transaction", he lamented.

"Public servants posted in regions where there are no branches or bank representations are forced to leave their jobs to collect their salaries in the city of Menongue, as it is the only one in the province with several bank representations, which has caused onerous costs to them”, he detailed.

She highlighted that, with the presence of banking services in all municipalities in the province, the population will be increasingly comfortable and purchasing power will be on the rise.

Therefore, José Martins appealed to the head of the Central Bank, Manuel António Tiago, to continue working hard with financial institutions so that compliance with the guidelines aimed at expanding these services throughout the country becomes effective.

Source: JA