Speaking on the occasion, the governor said it was with "enormous joy" that the 'Kwik' (acronym for Kwanza Instantâneo) was launched, "which is the culmination of a program started by EMIS, about two years ago, with the support of the National Bank of Angola".
"This program resulted from a joint assessment that was carried out within the scope of technical assistance from the World Bank, with a view to increasing levels of financial inclusion in Angola", he indicated.
Manuel Tiago Dias said that currently Angola has "a low banking rate, which means that a large part of the" adult population "is excluded from access to banking services".
"If we can say that Angola is doing relatively well in terms of classic banking services, placing itself at the level of the best practices in Africa, the same cannot be said in terms of solutions aimed at the unbanked population, where the existing offers are still very limited", he said.
The governor of the BNA also considered that "access to basic financial services, starting with instant transfers of funds, is very important, not only to promote the formalization of the economy, but also to pave the way for access to microcredit, which is truly the main objective of a financial inclusion program".
In this sense, the central bank, in partnership with EMIS, "decided to take an active role in the development of this new payment instrument, which is the Kwik, a modern payment instrument, adapted to the reality of the non-banking world, inclusive and easy to use".
"The development of a universally accepted payment instrument requires the existence of a financial market infrastructure that ensures interoperability between all participating service providers, under equal conditions, whether banking or non-banking", he said, adding: "Thus, taking into account the importance of interoperability, similar to what is happening in other geographies, where the State assumes responsibility for the financial market infrastructures that support inclusive payment instruments, we are evaluating the adoption of a broad moratorium regarding interoperability costs with the Kwik arrangement, for all participating service providers".
Manuel Tiago Dias also indicated that for a payment tool of this type to "be truly" inclusive "it is essential that it has a unique brand, widely known by the public and accepted by most payment service providers, as is currently the case" with cards, especially those of the Multicaixa brand.
In his speech, he also said that this new instrument is intended to develop in the market, "in an ecosystem that provides conditions for startups to find space that allows them to make their contribution in the Angolan Payment System".
"Kwik instant transfers and the Multicaixa card thus correspond to two payment instruments, which should coexist in an integrated manner in our payment services market", he added.
He also highlighted "the indispensable contribution of mobile communications operators to this financial inclusion effort", since their participation "will be decisive for the inclusion of the population that does not have access to financial services, taking advantage of their capillarity and their experience in managing agent networks".
