26 January 2008
Maputo — Mozambican commercial banks have begun to reduce their interest rates in response to measures taken by the Bank of Mozambique, according to the Bank's governor, Ernesto Gove.
Speaking on Friday, at the closing session of a meeting of the Bank's Consultative Council, Gove said that the central bank had cut interest rates used in the interbank money market, and had slashed the amount of reserves that commercial banks are obliged to deposit with the central bank by nine per cent.
Gove said that the commercial banks had reacted positively, by lowering their own interest rates, but there was still "a challenge as to the level and structure of the commissions charged".
Indeed a study by the Bank of Mozambique on the cost of financial services concluded that the interest rates and other charges practiced by the commercial banks are higher than the average charged in both developed countries and in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. There was no plausible justification for this, the study argued, given the current levels of inflation and exchange risk.
But Gove did praise the commercial banks for expanding their services into the Mozambican countryside. 46 new branches were opened in 2007, bringing the total number of branches to 274.
Gove thought it was an advance that now 32 of the country's 128 districts have bank branches. Which means that 96 do not, and that the vast majority of branches are still to be found in the main cities, with Maputo alone counting for about 45 per cent of the total.
Gove said that the number of automatic teller machines (ATMs) increased by 11 per cent, and there are now 403 of these convenient devices. Payment by debit or credit card is now possible in 3,464 establishments throughout the country.
Gove declared that the expansion of banking services "is not a philanthropic act, but a business opportunity for the operators, and a basis for broadening banking activity".
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