Open Letter to Robin Sherbourne / Nedbank Namibia & Old Mutual Namibia

I am sitting in Germany struggling to establish a Credit Register System in Namibia. I have been working on this project for over 12 years in the hope that with such a system there would be more affordable credit for poor people and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME's) in my country.

With very little funding (and no salary), I have managed to get this idea on to the national agenda. All financial institutions and supervisory bodies understand the need for a credit register system to allow financial inclusion - access to banking services especially by the poor, black people of our country. To get this idea to the public I have been sending emails to individuals within government and the business sector since 1997.

This morning (6 April 2011) I sent a copy of a blog about the need for a Credit Register in India to the financial services community in Namibia.
"... one of the major complaints against micro-finance institutions (MFIs) is the widespread trend of multiple borrowings by poor people. Though unaware of the credit histories of their borrowers, MFI lenders were carried away by the belief in their ability to recover loans and gave loans without proper due diligence. The result was poor people saddled with multiple loans from different MFIs, with atleast some of them being merely used to reschedule or repay older loans. "

Great was my surprise when I received the following email from Robin Sherbourne, Group Economist, Old Mutual Namibia (email address: RobinSh@Nedbank.com.na).

Please stop sending me emails. The IPPR is still trying to recover money you owe us from 2004. I can’t believe how duplicitous you have been yet you have the nerve to write about ethics and helping SMEs – unbelievable! You give BEE a bad name.

Robin

Robin Sherbourne

Group Economist

Old Mutual Namibia

+264 (0) 61 227950 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            +264 (0) 61 227950      end_of_the_skype_highlighting (telephone)

+264 (0) 61 259701 (fax)

+264 (0)081 129 2502 (mobile)

RobinSh@Nedbank.com.na (E-mail)

www.oldmutual.com.na

* duplicitous - marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another




I have previously written about my bad debts in my book, Future Namibia, as well as numerous times on my blog, so will not bore you with it here. (See end note later)

My immediate reaction was one of anger. After all, I am fighting to get a Credit Register established to assist the consumers of my country without any return on that investment after twelve years. Then I carefully reread his email. I don't mind the personal words. "Sticks and stones, Will break my bones, But names will never hurt me."

BUT I do mind the sentence, you give Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) a bad name. Wow racism has become very sophisticated in Namibia. Do you mean to tell me that because I am not white, and have a default judgement, you, Nedbank Namibia and Old Mutual are no longer interested in the "public good"¹?

No Mr. Sherbourne, you clearly indicate a lack of understanding of what it is to be financially previously disadvantaged or why the banking services need to be forced to bank the unbanked.

____________________________________________________________________
1. public good in reference: ....private banks may not find it worthwhile to incur the high costs of screening
and monitoring SMEs because, once these borrowers have a good credit history, they can
obtain credit from other lenders, who will not have to bear the initial costs for screening.
This suggests that information on creditworthiness is basically a public good, in the sense
that it is non-rival in consumption and it is very costly to exclude anyone from using it.
When the market fails to let banks appropriate the returns of information about their costumers,
banks will under-invest in the acquisition of such information.


Endnote:
Yes, I have a default judgement in favour IPPR (a private research organisation). I don't often get paid for what I do, but when I do, I have been paying this debt. However, the IPPR and their lawyers have made it a habit of harassing me whenever I get employment by delivering a summons. Then of course, I leave that office of employment and we do the merry dance again.


The IPPR has made it clear that the data I collect is free (to them) and part of publicly available data. Okay, so I continue to provide it free of charge and make no money with which to pay them. Call this lack of charging income because of the outstanding judgement my equivalent of a "Namibian stand-off".


Full blog here: http://milton-louw.blogspot.com/2009/04/me-and-bad-debts.html

What does Reconciliation mean in Namibia

Why is Reconciliation important to me - My father was in the South African Army that occupied this country. Even when I was arrested in 1988 as part of the uprising, he could not understand my views. With the policy of reconciliation, I was better able to understand and forgive him.

It was disturbing today to look at some of the pictures printed by the Swapo News Editor, Asser Ntinda, today 25 February 2011.

The pictures were truly gruesome - but that was not the most disturbing.The writer seemed to miss completely the spirit of what Reconciliation is.

Identifying ways in which offenders are assisted to redress the material and emotional damage they have inflicted through self-reflection, acknowledgment of responsibility, remorse, and compensation would be an important step towards establishing an environment of reconciliation.

I therefore cut some excerpts from an online paper to once again define what our National Reconciliation should entail in Namibia


What Does Reconciliation Entail?
taken from: http://www.gppac.net/documents/pbp/part1/2_reconc.htm

Reconciliation as a conflict handling mechanism entails the following core elements:
a) Honest acknowledgment of the harm/injury each party has inflicted on the other;
b) Sincere regrets and remorse for the injury done:
c) Readiness to apologize for one’s role in inflicting the injury;
d) Readiness of the conflicting parties to ‘let go’ of the anger and bitterness caused by the conflict and the injury;
e) Commitment by the offender not to repeat the injury;
f) Sincere effort to redress past grievances that caused the conflict and compensate the damage caused to the extent possible;
g) Entering into a new mutually enriching relationship.

Reconciliation then refers to this new relationship that emerges as a consequence of these processes. What most people refer to as ‘healing’ is the mending of deep emotional wounds (generated by the conflict) that follow the reconciliation process.

The essence of reconciliation is the voluntary initiative of the conflict parties to acknowledge their responsibility and guilt. The interactions that transpire between the parties are not only meant to communicate one’s grievances against the actions of the adversary, but also to

...................engage in self-reflection about one’s own role and behaviour in the dynamic of the conflict. In other words, in this kind of dialogue, as much as one attributes guilt and responsibility to the adversary for the damage generated by the conflict, one has to also be self-critical and acknowledge responsibility for his or her own role in the creation or perpetuation of the conflict and hurtful interaction.

The aim of such interaction is that, in the final analysis, each of the parties acknowledges and accepts his or her responsibility and out of such recognition seeks ways to redress the injury that has been inflicted on the adversary, to refrain from further damage, and to construct new positive relationships.

Identifying ways in which offenders are assisted to redress the material and emotional damage they have inflicted through self-reflection, acknowledgment of responsibility, remorse, and compensation would be an important step towards establishing an environment of reconciliation.

Who is best on (Namibian) Twitter?

The whole world is becoming focussed on social media and the number of users on Facebook, Twitter, etc. However, very little reliable information or statistics seems to be available about Namibian user and their preferences.

So, while I had very little to do this weekend while sitting in a cold Düsseldorf, I decided to look at what figures I could put together. This first place to start was Twitter. Twitter is the site where I get most of my introductions to a topic after which I may decide to look into it further and click on the link. Because of the limit of only 140 characters, I don’t have to worry much about missing a comment by a friend because some other “friends” has loaded dozens of pictures or played lots of games.

News providers
I started my Twitter search by looking at the Namibian media, that is, the companies or websites who provide information on Namibia. This is what I found in order of the most followers (as at 22.02.11):

#namibia_news - 1,980 followers. Most recent tweet 18 February 2011.
#radiowavefm – 220 followers. Most recent tweet 22 February 2011.
#unam974 – 151 followers. Most recent tweet 26 December 2010
#namibiansun – 136 followers. Most recent tweet 18 February 2011.
#namibiaelection – 125 followers. Most recent tweet 30 March 2010
#freshfm1029 – 129 followers.Most recent tweet 25 October 2010.
#thenamibian – 122 followers. Most recent tweet 11 February 2011.
#exposenewspaper – 113 followers. Most recent tweet 10 February 2011
#mynamibiainfo – 108 followers. Most recent tweet 22 February 2011
#99fmnam – 83 followers. Most recent tweet 22 February 2011. (The DJ’s of this station also have their own tweets and followers)
#namibeconomist - 15 followers. Most recent tweet 13 September 2011.
#republikein_na – 14 followers. Most recent tweet 13 January 2011.

As for my tweets, I have 43 followers and my most recent tweet was 17 February 2011.
Just for fun I also looked up #airnamibia. They have 209 followers and their last tweet was 22 June 2009.

Why give this information?
Perhaps by looking for information about tweets on Namibia will provide more people in Namibia a reason to use this social site. Compared to our uptake of Facebook, the usage on Twitter is way behind.

Is there such a thing as coloured?

I quote from a paper by R van der Ross at the Symposium on Slavery 2008 –
“The question of identity is one which elicits wide, wordy and largely useless response.
In this country there is continuous debate about the matter, and mostly about and from the Coloured people. Who are we? Why? Where from? Where to? Some even ask: Are we? Are there Coloured people? The ridiculousness of these questions is compounded by the attempts at answers: “We are not; we are not Coloured; we are simply human; we are, but we refuse to be called Coloured,” and so into various degrees of assininity. If the matter of mixed descent is raised, it will most likely be met with the response that all the peoples of the earth are mixed.

Of course there is some truth in this, but it evades the other truth namely that which the philosophers call “immediate perception.” We are Coloured because people look at us and regard us as Coloured. Finish en klaar.”
http://alturl.com/f4k9w

How Government should intervene in the financial sector

I have just received a briefing paper from the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik / German Development Institute concerning "The potential of pro-market activism as a tool for making finance work for Africa: a political economy perspective".

The author argues that:
"This suggests that information on creditworthiness is basically a public good, in the sense that it is non-rival in consumption and it is very costly to exclude anyone from using it. When the market fails to let banks appropriate the returns of information about their costumers, banks will under-invest in the acquisition of such information.
.....
Credit registries give access to clients’ credit history and increase the transparency of borrower quality, which makes it safer for financial institutions to lend to new customers.
.......
The Kenyan Central Bank (CBK) took the initiative and issued a regulation which mandated financial institutions to share information with credit bureaus."

They are funded by Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH. The project this is done under is called "Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A)" copyof the paper can be found oline at http://www.die-gdi.de/CMS-Homepage/openwebcms3.nsf/(ynDK_contentByKey)/ANES-8DNAK4/$FILE/DP%202.2011.pdf