The Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri) is actively involved in the knowledge area of national payment systems and the theme coordinator for the FinMark Trust’s Retail Payments Systems theme area. Cenfri is interested in increasing the knowledge base of and capacitating individuals involved in the financial sector to better work towards improvements in financial market efficiency, inclusion and overall economic growth. In line with this mission, Cenfri in collaboration with the National Payments Systems Institute (NPS-I) and the University Stellenbosch Business School Executive Development (USB-ED) presented a training programme in National Payment Systems (NPS).
From the 22nd – 25th of May 2012 the Programme in National Payment Systems was presented at the Winchester Mansions in Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa. It was well attended by a rich mix of international participants from the private, public and regulatory arenas. Regulators of payment systems from Central and Reserve Banks from across Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe attended the course, along with representatives of MNO’s, retailers, banking associations, postal services, NGO’s and national switches. The three and a half day training programme was made up of lectures from leading experts and interactive case study and panel discussion sessions. The content of the course was largely presented by faculty from the newly formed NPS-I, with an afternoon session on the demand-side aspect of payment systems from Dr. Prinsloo of In-Fusion Research and Knowledge Hub. The NPS-I is a new institute, launched in 2012, created for the express purpose of filling an educational gap in national payments systems through tapping the intellectual resource of experts with a depth of knowledge and experience in the industry. Its mandate is to offer credible educational material on the national payments system (e-books, e-modules, subscription content) and training courses (electronic and in person) to an international audience.
The purpose of the course was to enable potential and existing players in national payments systems to engage with all the aspects of a typical national payment system in order to increase capacity in building or further developing national payment systems worldwide in a sustainable way. The topic areas presented were as follows:
All the topics covered were taught in an interactive manner to ensure the maximum benefit to the delegates of demonstrating real world applicability and drawing off the wealth of experience in the room. In this way, the training program was able to facilitate both content and peer-to-peer learning. Cenfri is happy to announce the course was a great success and looks forward to continued involvement in training in the payments systems arena.
Read our latest on national and regional payment systems here.