CBE partners with payments industry

MBABANE – From 2020 until the time under review, the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE), in conjunction with the Eswatini payments industry, continued to develop the National Payment Switch Project.

Dr Phil Mnisi, Governor of CBE, addressed this during the Governor’s Annual Monetary Policy Statement Address earlier this week. He stated that the project’s goal was to modernise the Eswatini payments landscape, reduce transaction costs, and create interoperability across various payment systems and service providers.

IMPLEMENTATION

“The domestic switch implementation has been phased into streams and entails a fast payments stream that is aimed at realising quick gains in the payments space, and it will be followed by card point of sale and ATM streams,” the governor continued.

Mnisi further stated that the system includes an open banking stream that will offer additional channels and accelerate e-commerce initiatives, and that its priority was set by CBE working with the payments industry.

“The implementation will take approximately 36 months,” he continued.

Mnisi further stated that the CBE views the development of fintech as vital. In this regard, he stated that the Alliance for Financial Inclusion has granted them technical support to perform a full fintech scoping exercise in Eswatini.

LANDSCAPE

“The primary goal of the exercise was to understand the country’s current fintech landscape and to develop a roadmap that can assist with the formulation of a national fintech strategy and the future development of the Eswatini Fintech Working Group,” the governor stated.

Mnisi went on to say that the exercise found that the fintech ecosystem was still in its early stages, with incumbent businesses dominating the industry.

He highlighted that, while Eswatini was well-positioned to provide fintech solutions to the wider SADC region, there were still significant challenges that the fintech players faced in the country.

“These include, among others, the limited opportunities for collaboration and access to funding and talent. The findings of the exercise will serve as a foundation and source of information for the development of a national fintech strategy, policies, and initiatives aimed at advancing the local fintech ecosystem,” mentioned the governor.

The Deputy Governor stated that the CBE is continuing to closely monitor global, regional, and domestic trends affecting Eswatini. She stated that in 2022/23, the CBE carefully carried out its mandate and made monetary policy actions that they considered were consistent with these developments.

“We will continue to rely on the public to support the Central Bank in its efforts to pursue sound monetary policy, protect the peg, and safeguard the integrity of the financial system,” she said.