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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 29 December 2019:
Libya’s National Payments Council met last Thursday to discuss ways to develop electronic payment services and regulations governing it in the Libyan banking market, Libya’s Tripoli-based Central Bank of Libya (CBL) reported.
It reported that during the meeting, chaired by Tripoli CBL Governor Saddik El-Kaber, efforts by the CBL, commercial banks, electronic payment companies and telecommunications companies to expand and upgrade e-banking services were also reviewed.
The National Payments Council includes the
General Managers of the Jumhouria, Sahary, North Africa and Libyan Islamic Banks), Al-Madar Mobile phone company and Moamalat the state transactions centre, the Libyan Stock Market, the Libya Insurance Company), Mr. President of the Telecommunications Holding Company and a member of the Ministry of Finance, headed by the Governor of the Tripoli CBL.
It will be recalled that since the Libyan economic crisis post its 2011 revolution that ended the Qaddafi era and the resultant cash crisis, the Tripoli government, the Tripoli CBL and Audit Bureau had launched a drive to increase the use of e-payments to mitigate the cash crisis.
One of the moves in this campaign was for the National Payments Council to hold meetings to facilitate better use of e-payments.
Subsidising e-payments
It will be recalled that the Committee for the Improvement of Electronic Services to Banks formed earlier this year by the Tripoli-based and internationally recognized Faiez Serraj government held its fourth periodic meeting on 19 December. The Committee was formed by virtue of Presidential Council decree Number (988) of 2019.
It was held in the presence of officials and experts from the Libya Telecommunications and Technology company (LTT), the main state internet service provider, to follow up on e-services projects provided to local banks, within the framework of the implementation of the Committee’s tasks
During the meeting, held in the Prime Minister’s office, numerous factors and reasons were identified which have led to repeated delays in the provision e-service to banks.
The report of the meeting said that the Committee ‘‘discussed solutions and alternatives, including the development of an emergency response programme and the risks that lead to interruption of service, including the frequent electricity cuts’’.
The Committee also discussed ‘‘finding a system to reduce the price of e-services through the activation of the E-Services Subsidies Fund by the state’’. The meeting also discussed the need to ‘‘unify communications policies’’ among the different service providers, in coordination with the relevant authorities.
The Committee stressed the ‘‘need for continued coordination with the banking sector to ensure the efficiency, safety and security of the service provided to banks’’.
It is worth recording that the Committee includes advisors from the Prime Minister’s Office, the CBL and the General Communications Authority.
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