Credit Bureau to be regulated soon

The Bank of Namibia (BoN) announced on 29 August 2013 that the proposed draft regulations to regulate credit bureaus in Namibia are now open for public consultation. The BoN states “There has been recent speculation in the media around whether or not credit bureaus are illegal in Namibia. The Bank of Namibia’s view is that the existing credit bureaus in Namibia are legal entities registered in accordance with the relevant laws by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

That means they are not illegal. What is missing in our legal system at the moment is a specific law regulating how these entities should manage the information under their care, and there is no centralized credit information system that allows banks and other lenders to know the total exposure per client and their credit history so as to avoid overextending of consumers.”

What is a credit bureau?

A credit bureau (sometimes called consumer reporting agency or credit reference agency) is a company that collects information from various sources and provides consumer credit information on individual consumers for a variety of uses. Credit information such as a person’s previous payment of loans or accounts is a powerful tool to predict their future behavior. Through the collection of such information lenders such as banks and micro-lenders can assess credit worthiness, the client’s ability to pay back a loan. This information can also affect the interest rate and other conditions of a loan.

Present situation in Namibia

Currently Namibian credit providers are under no obligations to supply information to credit bureaus. It is against that background that the proposed regulations will seeks to establish rights and obligations of credit bureaus to be registered and licensed by the Bank of Namibia. It is also proposed by the BoN that all credit bureaus are to have a centralized system. Such a system should have the capability of calculating total credit exposure per client, and requires that all credit providers are to supply information to all credit bureaus. The Regulations also provide clear guidelines pertaining to the kind of data to be collected, the period of time information can be kept (retention period) etc.

Who are credit providers?

The Bank of Namibia has also defined who the sources of credit and non-credit information that are obliged to provide information to all credit bureaus that meet the qualifying criteria as set out in the proposed Regulations.

Credit providers

•          Commercial banks
•          Micro lenders
•          Retailers providing credit

Utilities

•          Regional Electricity Distributors (REDs)
•          Bulk water suppliers
•          Telecommunication companies

An organ of State, court or judicial officer

Information on Debt Judgments, non-payment of Maintenance or debt owed to a government department[1]

The regulations further states For the purpose of building data bases for SMEs, a credit bureau may collect and receive non-credit information from suppliers whose participation in the credit information system may be voluntary and the following categories are listed.

Local Authorities

•          Municipalities
•          Town Councils
•          Village Councils

Public Consultation Process

The Bank of Namibia is therefore inviting all stakeholders and most importantly the general public to present their input to the Bank of Namibia for consideration. The public members/stakeholders are advised to make written submissions on the entire Regulations by or before 26 September 2013.

Written submissions on the Regulations can be done on the Bank of Namibia website at www.bon.com.na, or if confidentiality is requested, comments can be emailed to ndangi.katoma@bon.com.na. Further queries pertaining to this can be directed Mr. Ndangi Katoma, Director: Strategic Communications & Financial Sector Development, telephone number 061-283 5114.

Milton Louw is a consumer activist that has been advocating the creation of a national credit bureau (with the necessary consumer protections) since 2006 in a submission to the Parliament of Namibia. He is the voluntary Director of the Namibia Consumer Protection Group and all opinions expressed in this article are his own.

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[1] Description provided by the writer and not BoN

How Government spies on you

((First appeared in Consumer News Namibia Magazine September 2013)

Many consumer around the world were not surprised to find out that governments all around the world have been spying on the people who use the Internet services provided by international companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter to mention but a few.  Many of us believe that these requests were from governments in developed countries such as the United States of America or Britain. Consumer News Namibia Magazine decided to investigate these requests and see if there are any requests to the popular Facebook social site from within the SADC region.

International Awareness
Privacy is a fundamental human right, and is central to the maintenance of democratic societies. It is essential to human dignity and it reinforces other rights, such as freedom of expression and information, and freedom of association, and is recognised under international human rights law. Activities that restrict the right to privacy, including communications surveillance, can only be justified when they are prescribed by law, they are necessary to achieve a legitimate aim, and are proportionate to the aim pursued.

Surprisingly, two of our SADC neighbours, Botswana and South Africa have made requests to Facebook about users and their accounts. Botswana had made a total of 3 requests about 7 users, however no data was provided by the Facebook site. South Africa had made a total of 14 requests about 9 users but they too were denied any information by Facebook.

According to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/about/government_requests ), Namibia had made no requests between the six months period of 1 January to 30 June 2013.

Looking at the newspapers over the past few weeks there has been more and more information being leaked about the interference by Governments in the private lives of their citizens.

International Consumer organisations such as Consumers International (CI) have realised for some time now there has been a need to update understandings of existing human rights law to reflect modern surveillance technologies and techniques. Nothing could demonstrate the urgency of this situation more than the revelations confirming the mass surveillance of innocent individuals around the world.

These organisations are signatories to the “International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance”

The Preamble to the principles reads:

In abbreviated form these principles are:

•          Legality: Any limitation on the right to privacy must be prescribed by law.
• 
  
•          Legitimate Aim: Laws should only permit communications surveillance by specified State authorities to achieve a legitimate aim that corresponds to a predominantly important legal interest that is necessary in a democratic society.
• 
  
•          Necessity: Laws permitting communications surveillance by the State must limit surveillance to that which is strictly and demonstrably necessary to achieve a legitimate aim.
• 
  
•          Adequacy: Any instance of communications surveillance authorised by law must be appropriate to fulfill the specific legitimate aim identified.
• 
  
•          Proportionality: Decisions about communications surveillance must be made by weighing the benefit sought to be achieved against the harm that would be caused to users' rights and to other competing interests.
• 
  
•          Competent judicial authority: Determinations related to communications surveillance must be made by a competent judicial authority that is impartial and independent.
• 
  
•          Due process: States must respect and guarantee individuals' human rights by ensuring that lawful procedures that govern any interference with human rights are properly enumerated in law, consistently practiced, and available to the general public.
• 
  
•          User notification: Individuals should be notified of a decision authorising communications surveillance with enough time and information to enable them to appeal the decision, and should have access to the materials presented in support of the application for authorisation.
• 
  
•          Transparency: States should be transparent about the use and scope of communications surveillance techniques and powers.
• 
  
•  ·         Public oversight: States should establish independent oversight mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability of communications surveillance.
• 
  
•          Integrity of communications and systems: States should not compel service providers, or hardware or software vendors to build surveillance or monitoring capabilities into their systems, or to collect or retain information.

Namibia does not yet have a Consumer Protection Act, Electronic Transactions Act or Data Protection Act which many developing countries have already put in place. Thus one has to hope that these principles will be incorporated into the long-overdue legislation – and hopefully soon.

Who is Milton Louw?

Foundational Pillars:

1.       Writer

·         1987                         : Founder Editor of School newspaper- Dawid Bezuidenhout

·         1991                         : Poet – Collection of poems as “Bubblegum Love”

·         1991 – 1993           : Editor of Namibia Business Journal, NCCI

·         1994                         : Publisher of Fortune Magazine Namibia

·         1997 - 2000            : Publisher of Business Fax News

·         1999 – 2011           : Publisher of Milton’s Email Business News

·         2004                         : Publisher of Namibia Business Directory

·         Since 2009             : Blogger at http://milton-louw.blogspot.com/

·         2011                         : Author of Future Namibia

·         Since 2012             : Blogger at Africa Council for Africa

·         Since 2012             : Columnist at the Namibian Newspaper

·         Since 2012             : Writer at Consumer News Namibia Magazine

2.       Actor

·         1987                         Namibian Schools Drama Winner

·         1988                         Namibian University Drama Group

·         1989                         Adam Small – “Joanie Galant-Hulle” (Director: Frederick Philander)

3.       Debater

·         1987                         Namibian School Debating Champion

·         1988                         Namibian Tertiary Students Debating Champion

4.       Leader

·         1983                         Headboy – Brackenhurst Primary School

·         1990                         Chairman of the Tertiary Students Representative Council

·         1997 – 2010           Executive Council – Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry

5.       Researcher

·         1995                         Namibian Fishing Industry Sectoral Study

                                  United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, IPS France

·         1999                         Pan-African Initiative On E-Commerce

                                  Economic Commission for Africa

·         2000                         Central Register for Namibia

                                  Creditreform Germany

·         2003                         Small Business Impact Assessment

                                  Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit

·         2004                         SME Banking and Financial Services Survey (Namibia)

                                  USAID

·         2007                         “ICT for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development”

                                  Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies

·         2009                         “Libraries, Telecentres, Cybercafes And Public Access To ICT”

                                  University of Washington

·         2011                         Credit Information Bureau for Namibia

                                  Namibia Consumer Protection Group

6.       Entrepreneur

·         1988 - 1990            SME trader of goods from Cape Town, RSA till Oshakati, Namibia

·         1991                         Solutions Namibia (Computer Support)

·         1991                         Fortune Namibia Magazine

·         1999 – present    NamBizDotCom (company database management)

·         2003 – present    Credit Information Bureau Namibia (consumer reports)

·         2007 – present    Namlists (consumer list generation)

·         2012                         Namibia Savings & Credit Cooperative

7.       Activist

·         1988                         Student activist for Namibian Independence

·         1991 – 2005           Black Economic Empowerment – Chamber of Commerce

·         Since 2006             Consumer Activist

8.       Trade Promoter

·         1993 - 1995            Namibian Delegate to UNIDO, Paris, France

·         2001                         Trade Representative for Botswana Export Development and

                                  Investment Authority (BEDIA)

·         2006                         Trade Representative for Mauritius  Export Development and

                                  Investment Authority (MEDIA)

9.       Teacher

·         1991 – 2005           Microsoft Office Trainer to black entrepreneurs

·         2006 – 2008           Lecturer for Cambridge International Business Diploma

·         2009 – 2011           MS Office to government employees at Polytechnic of Namibia

10.   Project manager

·         1995 - 1997            Oshikango Export Processing Zone

·         2013                         Namibia Electronic Voter Roll at Electoral Commission of Namibia

11.    

What reading the Bible taught me

I must have irritated my Uncle Ron no end. Always questions and more questions. Yesterday, I remembered asking him when I was around 9 how a person could read the whole Bible. His answer, "A chapter at a time".

The best part was having him help me work out a schedule to do this by making time every day (@18H15) to spend reading a chapter at a time. By the time I was 13, I finished at Revelations 22.

Thats an awesome 1,189 chapters.

The point I would like to make though is what I learnt from reading the Bible. It was not just Christian values or morals, but it also improved my vocabulary, my story-telling capability, and my ability to share the value of an internalised belief system.

Thats what I want to have Moral Education taught at schools. It is about the wisdoms a child should explore and expand within themselves.

Disinfectants fails specifications test

Namibia as a consumer society uses almost all products that are available for consumer in South Africa. Thus it is with great concern we notice that the National Regulation for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) has recalled a popular detergent product because it’s deemed to be harmful for consumers. The NRCS has informed the public that the Dettol disinfectant liquid failed a bacterial efficacy test. The test requires a disinfectant detergent to kill 99.9percent of germs and Dettol failed this test, according to Thomas Madzivhe of NRCS.

“It (Dettol) has failed a bacterial efficacy test. Once you have a product that does not kill 99.9 percent it exposes you to whatever various forms of infection you may get,” said Madzivhe.

(South African) Consumers have been warned not to purchase the product that has been ordered to be taken off the shelves across the country soon. The product is imported from the United Kingdom and it is not registered with the local regulator. Its manufactures don’t have permission to sell the product in South Africa or Namibia.

What is even more worrying is that Dettol is not the only detergent that has been taken off the shelves. Domestos, produced by Unilever, has also been recalled.

“It (Domestos) does not meet our administrative regulatory requirements and it cannot be sold, even though technically it may not pose any safety or health risk to the consumers," said Madzivhe.

The South African Regulator (National Regulation for Compulsory Specifications) has confiscated over 4000 bottles of Dettol disinfectant liquid and they will be destroyed.

The regulator has urged consumers to alert the NRCS of shops that are still selling the recalled products.

The question is now to Namibian consumers: Who is protecting our rights?

The answer would seem to be that this should be the Namibia Standards Institution.

What is the Namibia Standards Institution?

The Namibian Standards Institution (NSI) is established in terms of the Standards Act 18, of 2005. The NSI is governed by the Namibian Standards Council (NSC), which was inaugurated by the Hon. Minister of Trade Dr. Hage Geingob on the 17th of February, 2011. The NSC provides strategic leadership to the NSI and consists of eight members, who are all non-executive, independent Directors, while the CEO serves as an ex officio member of the NSC.

According to the NSI, the expected results of the NSI Programme are an established and functional national standards body in Namibia, capable of:

·         developing, adopting and applying standards;

·         providing accurate measurement traceability to the international standards (SI) through the metrology division;

·         providing reliable testing especially for food such as fish and fishery products including shellfish, beef and agro-products and rendering food safety technical support to the aquaculture, fishing and other industries through regular tests conducted at the NSI Biotoxins and Microbiology laboratories at Walvis Bay and through NSI Inspection and Certification.

Regardless of who is OFFICIALLY responsible for protection the consumer in this regard, you the consumer can be assured that the Consumer News Magazine Namibia will keep you informed of the news you need to know.

Namibians do not get value for money when using data

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an independent international organisation committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. The WEF released its “Global Information Technology Report 2013” in April and here are some highlights, as well as specific information regarding the cost of technology in Namibia.

Finland has toppled Sweden from the top spot in a ranking of economies that are best placed to benefit from new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Singapore came in second and Sweden third in the 2013 Networked Readiness Index.

The Networked Readiness Index, calculated by the WEF, and INSEAD (an acronym for the French "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" or European Institute of Business Administration), ranks 144 economies based on their capacity to exploit the opportunities offered by the digital age. This capacity is determined by the quality of the regulatory, business and innovation environments, the degree of preparedness, the actual usage of ICTs, as well as the societal and economic impacts of ICTs. The assessment is based on a broad range of indicators from Internet access and adult literacy to mobile phone subscriptions and the availability of venture capital. In addition, indicators such as patent applications and e-government services gauge the social and economic impact of digitization.

Namibia is ranked 111 out of 144 countries in the survey.

Further interesting facts highlighted in the WEF report include the following rankings (out of 144 countries)

Namibia Country Ranking	Ranking out of 144	Score
Networked Readiness Index 2012 (out of 142)	105	3.3
A. Environment subindex	58	4
1st pillar: Political and regulatory environment	37	4.4
2nd pillar: Business and innovation environment	112	3.7
B. Readiness subindex	115	3.3
3rd pillar: Infrastructure and digital content	102	3
4th pillar: Affordability	117	3.1
5th pillar: Skills	111	3.7
C. Usage subindex	101	3.1
6th pillar: Individual usage	99	2.5
7th pillar: Business usage	76	3.4
8th pillar: Government usage	116	3.4
D. Impact subindex	122	2.7
9th pillar: Economic impacts	117	2.7
10th pillar: Social impacts	121	2.8

There is a ranking in the report where Namibia is Number 1 - that is in “Mobile Network Coverage”. Thus we can be proud in having the highest coverage of our population (as small as it is) with mobile cellular services.

A new report from Research ICT Africa (RIA) provides another view of Namibia’s e-readiness.

In a table from the RIA report, a comparison is made between costs of ADSL (fixed line) and mobile costs to use the Internet and other data services. Namibia ranks very favourably in the cost of fixed line data access at USD 40.32 per month but it is shocking to see that our data access via mobile is over USD 100 or N$ 990 per month.

This cost comparison is very relevant as most Namibian consumer are using their cellular telephones to use the internet rather than fixed “home” lines. Thus the poorer sections of the population will pay up to 2.5 times higher for data access via the most available medium, namely cellular.

The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) needs to be proactive on engaging the service providers (all of whom belong to the state-owned Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings company).  CRAN is after all responsible to (among others):

• ·         Implement a transparent and fair pricing regime
• ·         Respond to consumer complaints
• ·         Protect consumers in respect of prices, quality, variety of services and user equipment supplied
• ·         Promote competition amongst service providers

Buyer beware when enrolling at an education business

The past few weeks there have been shock stories in the newspaper and on the airwaves regarding students who have completed their studies (some as far afield as Indonesia), only to find out that their course of study or institution they were studying at are not accredited by the Namibian authorities.  A few of these customers have contacted the Consumer News Namibia Magazine and asked for our assistance in getting their courses accredited, or at the very least, getting their money refunded.

Consumer News Namibia Magazine has in previous editions covered the education sector, and more specifically the private tertiary institutions sector, but for the sake of our readers once again we give details in this article.

Let us start with educational institutions that are based in Namibia.

The Namibian constitution states:

(4) All persons shall have the right, at their own expense, to establish and to maintain private schools, or colleges or other institutions of tertiary education: provided that:

(a) such schools, colleges or institutions of tertiary education are registered with a Government department in accordance with any law authorising and regulating such registration;

(b) the standards maintained by such schools, colleges or institutions of tertiary education are not inferior to the standards

Educational institutions in Namibia (and their portfolio or courses) are accredited by the Namibia Qualifications Authority (NQA). This institution evaluates and accredits national institutions and degrees, as well as foreign qualifications of people who wish to demonstrate the national equivalence of their degrees earned abroad.

According to their website:

“The Namibia Qualifications Authority (also referred to as the NQA) is a statutory body established by the Namibia Qualifications Authority Act No 29 of 1996.

The NQA is committed to the promotion of quality education and training in Namibia through the development and management of a comprehensive and flexible National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

Quality is also promoted by the NQA through the Accreditation of education and training providers in Namibia and their courses.

The NQA wishes to assist the development of Namibia as a proud nation through putting in place systems and opportunities that allows all people to develop to their fullest potential without being hindered by unnecessary obstacles and barriers.

The NQA believes that all people have a right to having their learning and abilities validly, fairly, reliably and equitably recognised regardless of when, how and where learning attainments and competences were attained.”

Unfortunately, this is the only page that works on the NQA website. All other pages were unavailable for link through from 20 – 29 July 2013.

In a nutshell, the NQA has the responsibility of ensuring the quality of education received by Namibians. They do this through accrediting Namibian institutions and their courses as well as evaluating of course provided by international organisations.

Thus a Namibian student (or their parents) should first check with the Namibia Qualifications Authority (NQA) before commencing their studies at either a local or foreign institution. In addition, the consumer must take note of what level the course is in the National Qualifications Framework.

Until Namibia gets a Consumer Protection Act, the rule is “Caveat emptor” or let the buyer beware. It still is the responsibility of the buyer to research the goods or services they wish to purchase and they have no recourse to the law if these do not meet their expectations.