… As regulatory says it has achieved 81% of its five-year strategy
By Koviao Matuzee
The Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA) has one year left to complete its five-year strategy, with the financial regulator reporting 81% progress on its 11 strategic objectives as it prepares to meet the demands of a growing non-bank financial sector.
Chief executive officer Kenneth Matomola said the NAMFISA had entered the fourth year of its 2022–2027 strategic plan with most of its targets achieved, leaving the remaining 19% to be addressed by March 2027.
The progress comes as the authority oversees more than 16,800 regulated entities, including 1,193 financial institutions and 15,607 financial intermediaries, making operational efficiency, technological innovation and the protection of consumers central to its remaining work.
“We still have to deal with the 19% in the year we are in now, which will end in March 2027,” Matomola said during the launch of NAMFISA’s 2026 annual report recently.
He also said the strategy was built around three priorities namely, operational efficiency, stakeholder engagement, and innovation.
These are intended to help the authority use its resources prudently, improve service delivery, and keep pace with technological developments.
Matomola added that the regulator had introduced an electronic recruitment system to make hiring more efficient, particularly when vacancies attract large numbers of applications.
The authority was also investing in staff training and development to strengthen its internal capacity.
At the end of March 2026, NAMFISA had 194 employees, with women accounting for 55.6% of its workforce.
The pressure on the regulator is reflected in the scale of the sector it supervises.
Non-bank financial sector assets increased by 16.6% to about N$552.8 billion during the 2025/26 financial year, according to figures presented at the launch.
Retirement funds accounted for a substantial share of these assets, with investments increasing by 15.5% to about N$301.6 billion.
About 50.3% of retirement fund investments were held domestically, above the 45% minimum domestic allocation requirement outlined by Matomola.
The figures underline the importance of effective supervision, as these funds hold savings that many Namibians depend on for their retirement.
Consumer protection remains another measure of the authority’s work.
NAMFISA received 403 complaints during the reporting period and resolved 375, representing a resolution rate of about 93%.
Its interventions also resulted in about N$4.4 million being recovered for 81 complainants.
The complaints mainly came from the insurance sector, followed by micro-lending and medical aid funds, Matomola said.
He also pointed to the authority’s contribution to efforts to strengthen Namibia’s response to financial crime.
During the year, NAMFISA conducted five on-site and 54 off-site anti-money-laundering inspections and issued 16 enforcement directives to regulated entities.
The work formed part of wider efforts by Namibian institutions to address weaknesses in financial crime controls and support the country’s exit from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list.
Meanwhile, the regulator is continuing work on the Consumer Credit Bill and the implementation of the Financial Institutions and Markets Act, alongside its broader digital transformation program.
Matomola said the authority’s strategic priorities were intended to ensure that the non-bank financial sector remained stable and resilient, while consumers were protected, and financial services continued supporting economic activity.
The regulator’s own financial results were affected by a once-off legal charge linked to a Supreme Court judgment. NAMFISA recorded a N$31.3 million deficit for the year, largely due to the N$83.6 million charge, although Matomola said recurring expenditure remained under control.
With the strategy due to conclude in March 2027, the remaining year will test whether NAMFISA can turn its reported progress into stronger processes, timely services and effective oversight of a sector managing hundreds of billions of dollars in assets.
The authority’s next challenge is not only to complete its outstanding strategic targets, but to ensure that its systems and capacity keep pace with the institutions and consumers relying on its supervision.
