Maputo — Mozambican commercial banks have been making life more difficult for their customers by reducing the number of ATMs from which money can be withdrawn.

According to figures from the Bank of Mozambique, cited in Friday's issue of the independent newssheet "Carta de Mocambique', the number of ATMs has declined by 12 per cent over the past three years - from 1,710 in 2020, to 1,637 in 2021, to 1,573 in 2022, and to 1,507 in 2023. No explanation for this decline has been offered.

There has been an even sharper fall in the number of POS (Point of Sale) terminals at commercial establishment where purchases can be made by bank card. The number fell from 36,541 in late 2020 to 27,226 in October 2023.

Nonetheless the number of cards issued by Mozambican banks has continued to grow, and in October reached 3,429,120 debit cards, 124,718 credit cards and 264,145 prepaid cards.

A further problem for customers is that most of the commercial banks stopped accepting, either at ATMs or at POS terminals, payment by Mastercard.

Although Mastercard is second only to Visa as an international bank card provider, and although the banks continued to claim that they accept Mastercard, in fact ATMs routinely rejected Mastercards, and at some supermarkets clients trying to pay by Mastercard were told to pay by cash.

Tourists trying to use a Mastercard to pay for goods or services in Mozambique were in for an unpleasant shock. The banks offered no explanation for this situation, which forced customers to scour Maputo looking for an ATM which would accept Mastercards.

This problem may be on the way to a solution. Over the past week. ATMs of the largest commercial bank, the Millennium-BIM, suddenly started accepting Mastercards again.