BoZ  to develop robust financial inclusion strategy

Thu, 29 Sep 2016 09:24:11 +0000

THE Bank of Zambia (BoZ) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance is developing a financial inclusion strategy which will help promote a more effective and efficient fiscal process in the country.

BoZ senior analyst research and regulator policy Banji Milambo said the financial inclusion strategy would involve among other things financial education, building the necessary infrastructure and building capacity in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be able to provide bankable documents that would convince the banks to lend money to them.

Mr Milambo said the bank was committed to ensuring that all the segments of the society including the SMEs were financially included.

He said in an interview at the on-going five days media economic and financial literacy training Lusaka organized b the Financial Sector Deepening Zambia (FSDZ) and the Zambia Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR).

“Increased financial literacy levels result in increased consumption and uptake of financial services.

“There are a number of things that we are doing to ensure financial inclusion in the country, for example, BoZ together with Ministry of Finance is developing what we call a financial inclusion strategy which will involve financial education, building necessary infrastructure among other things and will target everyone in the country,” he said.

He said the financial inclusion strategy was expected to be put in place b January next year.

Mr Milambo also said the central bank was doing everything possible to ensure that it brought stability in the market.

He noted that it was difficult to plan in a situation where the interest rates kept on up and coming down hence the move b the bank to devise strategies to check the situation.

“What we are doing at the higher level of micro stability is trying to bring stability in the market, the only way that an entity can operate is if there is stability in the market, because if the interest rates keep on changing, its difficult to plan,” he said