##8. this allows the bank of namibia to focus on its mandate to authorize payment instruments such as nampost smart card and electronic money instruments such as issued by mobipay. to assist the bank of namibia in carrying out the functions of oversight of the abovementioned service providers to ensure compliance with set standards. since its establishment, pan has developed in terms of both its structural arrangements and its stature. today, pan has a governing council, an executive office which is being launched today, and several payment clearing house ( pch ) working groups or committees. this has increased its operational efficiency and service delivery. bis central bankers ’ speeches pan has achieved many goals over the last several years. although i do not want to go into details of all the particular achievements, allow me to highlight a few major milestones at this occasion. pan facilitated the development of the national payment system vision 2015 which casts the roadmap for both bank and non - bank stakeholders to participate in a broader payment system which is efficient, cost - effective and secure. pan currently runs three pchs, each representing a retail payment stream being ; cheque, cards and electronic funds transfer ( eft ). this has increased the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the industry for the benefit of the national payment system in the provision of these services. ladies and gentlemen, with the commissioning of this office, pan will be better positioned to continue to be the co - ordinating body through which payment system stakeholders are able to voice their views, contribute to a mutually beneficial national payment system and through which payment system projects can be co - ordinated. any providers of payment services that are not authorised by pan are operating illegally and we therefore call on any payment service providers to please enquire at this office. it is with great pleasure therefore, that i commission the office of pan together with its new logo and website. please join me in congratulating pan on these achievements which pave the way towards an exciting and bright future for the national payment system of namibia. in conclusion, i have no doubt that pan will live up to its mission, “ to maintain a world - class payment system that meets domestic, regional and international requirements ”. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

we cannot manage our own economic affairs without the departed colonial powers ’ assistance. it is astonishing to know that many an african country will still prefer a european consultant to advice on economic matters. this is in spite of the fact that over the years, africa has spent enormous amounts of financial resources on education and training. unfortunately, we are still reluctant to practically demonstrate our skills. we still want to think that we are less experienced to be experts in economic matters. as a result, we continually believe that we need to build new capacities or we need assistance from the departed colonial powers. what we forget is that expertise comes with practice and if we fail to practice what we have learned, we will never become experts at anything. i am not advocating a position where africa should not have any economic ties with other continents. on the contrary, what i am advocating is economic ties with other continents that are mutually beneficial. for too long africans have been hoodwinked by non - africans where, in our desperation to gain their acceptance, we agreed to non - beneficial economic deals. the lesson we must have learned from these experiences should be that, as a general rule, no nation helps another nation unless it is in its self interest. it is therefore time that as africans we must start believing that we have the capabilities and the expertise to run our economic affairs to our benefit. the third factor i would like to mention briefly is that of culture and tradition. while i firmly believe that a nation without culture and tradition will be a lost nation, we should also recognize the fact that all cultures do evolve. a particular culture or tradition that was cultivated at a particular period of time may hinder our economic development if we were to continue to practice such a tradition without any adaptation. for example, i am told of an african tradition where when a man dies, all his cattle are slaughtered at the time of his burial. in most african countries, we still continue to practice communal land tenure system. these are some of the practices that have the potential to hold us back to achieve our full economic potential. what is then the way forward to emancipate africa economically? it can be done and all what we need to do is to re - focus our mind on what is important for our economic development and less on what is convenient. i believe that we can create the necessary momentum for our economic emancipation if we continue to address those issues that are important to africa ’ s economic development. following are some of the issues that we need