to continue to address. political stability is a must. no economic development can take place in an environment of civil wars and political unrest. when you have social unrests, scarce resources that are necessary for economic development are diverted to unproductive war expenditures. we therefore need to continue to promote policies that will prevent political instability. it is heartening to note that political stability is improving in africa. although there are still few countries that are facing civil wars, the situation has significantly improved compared to the 1970s and 1980s. macroeconomic stability is equally important. during the 1980s, africa lost a decade in terms of economic growth partly due to the absence of prudent macroeconomic policies. high and volatile inflation rates, unsustainable budget deficits and balance of payments crisis characterized many countries on our continent during this period. therefore, maintaining and further consolidating both political and economic stability would be an important ingredient in enhancing economic growth. today education is widely recognized as an important contributor to economic growth because it leads to the creation of new knowledge and innovation. not only is education important for economic growth, it is probably the most basic necessity after those that are vital to life itself, such as food, clothing and shelter. it is education that lifts people out of the state of poverty. the huge gaps in economic opportunities that we witness on the continent, is mainly as a result of lack of skills and knowledge. what we must, however, remember is that it is no longer enough to provide education as a social service. in today ’ s world where international boarders are fast crumbling, it is education that will distinguish winners from losers. as african countries, we have now to compete in the world market where competition is so fierce and only the fittest will survive. it is therefore critical that the education must be relevant and of high quality. not only should the education be of high quality, but it must also be practical. the education must lead to a situation where we are able and ready to use the knowledge we have acquired and find ingenious ways of addressing the economic problems facing africa. this means africa must continue to invest in its human capital, while at the same time creating incentives to keep them on the continent. another important issue that needs our focus is the quality of our public institutions. our public institutions must be strengthened with the necessary capacity to carry out their mandates effectively. we must therefore ensure that we appoint only people with the required capabilities and willingness to lead our public institutions. to

ipumbu shiimi : credit information management in namibia welcoming remarks by mr ipumbu shiimi, governor of the bank of namibia, at the credit information workshop, windhoek, 19 august 2013. * * * director of ceremony mr. darrel beghin, executive director, south african credit providers association ms. mojgan derakhshani and daniel kanyi from finmark trust representatives of credit bureaus, representatives of lending institutions, distinguished invited guests, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, good morning! i am pleased to be here this morning and thank you for the invitation to open this important workshop on credit information, a topical subject of interest to namibia. allow me therefore, director of ceremony, to extend my gratitude appreciation to finmark trust for this initiative. i am informed that the overarching objective of the workshop is to share the outcome of the fact finding mission to namibia conducted by finmark trust in march this year and also to share the south african experience in credit information management. ladies and gentlemen, this workshop comes at an opportune time for namibia. why do i say that? three reasons come to mind. first, namibia in general and the bank of namibia in particular, are vigorously pursuing a financial inclusion agenda. this is underpinned by the launch of the namibia financial sector strategy in august 2012 by the honourable minister of finance. this strategy represents a long - term development strategy for the namibian financial sector. one of the goals of this strategy is to reduce financial exclusion from baseline of 51. 7 % financial exclusion determined in 2007 to 26 % percent by 2021. the good news is that we have made significant progress in this regard, financial exclusion has fallen since 2007, it now stands at 31 %. but we still have some work to do to achieve the goal of financial inclusion. a good credit information system is a necessity for financial inclusion and this is what i would like to talk about in my remarks today. first, what is the importance of a good credit information system? three reasons : a. research has shown that there is a positive correlation between the credit information system through the presence of credit registries / bureaus in an economy and access to finance. this is because credit information sharing plays a critical role in the financial sector in facilitating access to finance to people who are in need of funding. this is achieved by availing information on borrowers ’ credit worthiness to lenders. this helps lenders with credit assessment, meaning