The Bank of Namibia was established in 1993 to replace the never opened Namibia Reserve Bank. The Bank of Namibia is the only institution that is permitted to issue the Namibian dollar by authority that has been given to it under an Act of the Namibian Parliament. The head of the Bank of Namibia is the Governor of the Bank of Namibia. Tom Alweendo has been Governor since 1997.

The Bank is engaged in policies to promote financial inclusion and is a member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion. On March 5, 2012 the Bank of Namibia announced it would be making specific commitments to financial inclusion under the Maya Declaration.

The Bank is responsible for:

• formulating and implementing monetary policy;
• issuing banknotes and coin;
• supervising the banking sector;
• ensuring the effective functioning of the national payment system;
• managing foreign-exchange reserves;
• acting as banker to the government;
• administering the country's remaining exchange controls.

Vision
Vision of the Bank of Namibia is to be a center of excellence – a professional and credible institution – working in the public interest, and supporting the achievement of the national economic development goals.

Mission
In support of economic growth and development their mandate is to promote price stability, efficient payment systems, effective banking supervision, reserves management and economic research in order to proactively offer relevant financial and fiscal advice to all our stakeholders.

Values
In the Bank of Namibia is said high performance impact in the context of teamwork, uphold open communication, diversity and integrity. They care for each other’s well-being, and we value excellence.

Objectives
The objective of the central bank of Namibia, according the Namibian Constitution, is to “serve as the State’s principle instrument to control the money supply, the currency and the institutions of finance, and to perform all other functions ordinarily performed by a central bank”.

The Bank of Namibia Act No. 15 of 1997 further elaborates on this by laying down the following objectives:

• To promote and maintain a sound monetary, credit and financial system, in Namibia and sustain the liquidity, solvency and functioning of that system;
• To promote and maintain internal and external monetary stability and efficient payment mechanism;
• To foster monetary, credit and financial conditions conducive to the orderly, balanced and sustained economic development of Namibia;
• To serve as the Governments’ banker, financial adviser and fiscal agent;
• To assist in the attainment of national economic goals.

Functions:

• To provide banking services to commercial bank branches that are situated in the northern part of the country;
• To provide banking services to government ministries that have branches established in the north;
• To ensure that the right quality of notes are in circulation for the purpose of avoiding counterfeiting and for use in automatic note dispensing teller machines by commercial banks customers;
• To provide information to the general public on the functions of the Bank of Namibia and in particular functions such as the issuer of government securities and how the tender process in respect of such securities, works.
• To provide efficient services to its customers through the establishment of a close working relationship with its stakeholders for the purpose of better understanding of their requirements.

Bank operations
The Bank of Namibia executes core functions in order to fulfill its mandate as specified by the relevant laws and regulations. These core areas consist of banking supervision, economic research and advice, policy research and formulation, currency and banking services, reserves management and financial market development.

The following departments at the Bank of Namibia have the responsibility of implementing the mentioned functions: Banking Supervision, the Financial Intelligence Center, Research, Financial Markets and Banking Services.

Financial Stability
The Bank defines financial system stability to refer to the effort of the Bank aimed at promoting the development of sound and well-managed banking and other financial institutions as well as encouraging the development of efficient and well-functioning financial markets.

Financial stability is important as it reflects a sound financial system, which in turn is important as it reinforces trust in the system and prevents phenomena such as a run on banks, which can destabilize an economy. Additionally, a sound financial system signals to the public that their money is handled in a way which will not unduly jeopardize it. This is especially important for savings, including pension savings.

Elements of Financial Stability include an early warning system of monitoring relevant indicators; as well as stimulating and making provisions for possible realistic strains on the system by conducting stress testing. The above help regulators to monitor the system and prepare for ways to avert potential or discovered stress on the system.

Useful links

Currency of Namibia:

Namibian dollar

List of Central Banks:

Central Banks

Official website of Bank of Namibia:

www.bon.com.na

Ministry of Finance of Namibia:

www.mof.gov.na