THE Namibian Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) recovered more than N$2.2 million on behalf of disgruntled consumers during the quarter ended 31 March 2023. 

The largest amount of N$1.4 million was recovered from the pension funds sector was put back into the pockets of consumers who had complained to the authority.

“Namfisa received various complaints from consumers of financial services during the period January 2023 to March 2023. The complaints were mainly against the long-term and short-term insurance industry, pension funds industry and micro-lending and credit agreements industry. 

“Most of the complaints were resolved amicably. The complaints were largely attributed to the delays in the payment of pension benefits, repudiation of funeral claims, cancellation of contracts, and delays in payment of death claims and refunds,” explained the regulator. 

According to a statement released by Namfisa this week, the total amount paid to complainants, owing to the authority’s intervention, increased significantly by N$1 769 633 to N$2 237 163 during the quarter under review, up from N$467 530.

Pension funds industry was followed on the refunds list by long-term insurance industry which returned N$742 558, short-term insurance industry with N$62 089.67, and the micro-lending and credit agreement industry with N$10 145.32. 

Namfisa CEO Kenneth Matomola said the authority had established a dedicated consumer complaints department that investigates complaints on behalf of consumers of non-banking financial services and products at no cost to the consumer. 

“An aggrieved consumer can lodge a complaint against non-banking financial institutions or financial intermediaries, registered and doing business in Namibia, with Namfisa. It is important to note that, Namfisa exercises regulatory and supervisory oversight on institutions registered with it and doing business in Namibia. It is therefore important that consumers only do business with registered entities,” he urged. Furthermore, he said Namfisa takes consumer protection as key to its operations, and about 76.6% of the complaints received during the fourth quarter of 2022 were also resolved. 

The regulator said out of the 175 complaints, 93.7% jointly originated from only four sectors - micro-lending, long-term insurance, short-term insurance and retirement funds. 

–mndjavera@nepc.com.na