By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
ALL exporters will soon receive directives from the Central Bank compelling them to route their earnings through a bank account at a financial institution domiciled in Zambia.
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This means that all export earnings will be required to be reflected in an account at a commercial bank domiciled in Zambia from January 2024, following the execution of the Export Tracking Framework by Government.
Exporters will, however, retain full rights and control to use the funds as they deem fit, according to the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) Deputy Governor-Operations, Francis Chipimo at the National Symposium on the 2024 budget in Lusaka yesterday. Dr Chipimo clarified that this can only be done provided exporters comply with Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism Proliferation Financing obligations as has been the case under the current foreign exchange arrangement.
“Consultations with stakeholders to fully engage and appreciate how the Framework will work already commenced through the Public Private Dialogue Forum (PPDF) and will be scaled up prior to implementation on January 2024,” Dr Chipimo said.
He mentioned that the Central Bank had already developed a Framework by linking the e-BoP Monitoring System to ASYCUDA WORLD (Zambia Revenue Authority) to ensure validation of all export information. Dr Chipimo said the bank had issued circulars to commercial banks and money transfer operators to ensure that their customers undertaking cross border transactions obtain a Taxpayer Identification Number (TPIN) and comply with e-BoP Monitoring System reporting requirements. “In line with the BoZ Act, 2022, the bank will issue directives that will compel all exporters to route export earnings through a bank account at a bank domiciled in the republic of Zambia,” he said.
He also said: “This will create a database of aggregate statistics that would be useful in conducting national money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessments that the country is required to undertake under the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations.”
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