Maravi

BoZ urges banks to target the poor

BoZ urges banks to target the poor
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Friday October 10, 2008 [04:00]

THE Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has observed that the high cost of banking in Zambia was hampering efforts to capture un-banked communities.

BoZ director for bank supervision Chisha Mwanakatwe said the Central Bank has advised commercial banks to tailor products that would not only target the rich in society but also the poor as a way of capturing the huge un-banked population, which stands at about 85 per cent.

Officiating at the official launch of the Stanbic Bank Zambia ‘Win with the Blue Bank’ promotion in Lusaka on Wednesday, Mwanakatwe urged commercial banks to continue being innovative and find ways of making their products available to the masses, noting that the cost of banking was quite high in the rural areas.

“I would like to encourage the commercial banks to not only structure products which will be appealing to the more affluent segments of society but also the un-banked, whose inclusion will ultimately allow them to access credit and other services,” Mwanakatwe said.

“Over 80 per cent of the rural population lives on less than K400,000 per annum, meaning that the mere maintenance of a bank account would cost them up to 20 per cent of the income. While corresponding cost in the urban areas would amount to only three per cent, physical access to services still makes it difficult for a large number of people to establish a relationship with a bank.

I urge commercial banks to step up their efforts to make their services more accessible and more affordable and to direct the resources mobilised towards productive ventures which will in turn, promote the alleviation of poverty.”

And Stanbic Bank Zambia managing director Joseph Chikolwa praised the campaign saying it was a befitting way to end the year considering the various challenging pressures the country had gone through in the recent past.

Chikolwa explained that the competition, which would run until December this year, has a grand prize of an all-expense paid for trip for two to a premier shopping destination of Guangzhou, China with US$1, 000 allowance for each person. Other prizes include laptops, I-Pods, Blackberry mobile phones and various branded give-away gifts.

Labels: BOZ, CHISHA MWANAKATWE

posted by MrK @ 4:22 AM