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BOZ expects banks to provide required level of finance – Kalyalya

BOZ expects banks to provide required level of finance – Kalyalya
By Joan Chirwa
Thu 17 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT

BANK of Zambia (BoZ) deputy governor for Operations Denny Kalyalya has said the Central Bank expects commercial banks to provide the required level of finance to consolidate economic gains registered so far.

During the launch of Barclays Bank Zambia Manda Hill branch in Lusaka on Tuesday, Dr Kalyalya said Zambia’s economy had been on the recovery path since the beginning of this year.

“As you may be aware, economies around the world have been negatively affected by the global financial and economic crises. Zambia, like most commodity exporting countries, was mostly affected by the second round effects of the crisis, especially in key sectors such as mining,” Dr Kalyalya said.

“I am, in this connection, happy to note that the overall performance of the financial sector has been satisfactory which should serve as a good basis for the lending we are talking about.”

He further noted that Barclays Bank, despite the setbacks from the financial crisis and its impact on the local economy, had continued to increase the number of distribution points throughout the country.

Dr Kalyaya said it was a well-known fact that branch expansion programmes played an important role in increasing access to the unbanked population in the country.

“However, there is need to complement physical branch expansion with other product innovation programmes that will capture a lot more people in the remote areas of our country,” Dr Kalyalya said.

“The real challenge for us is how to enhance savings mobilisation and effectively channel the public savings to most productive uses. It is for this reason that the Bank of Zambia has continued to encourage banks to offer an expanded range of innovative banking products.”

Dr Kalyalya further encouraged commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions in the country to continue taking a leading role in helping to improve the local financial services sector by providing greater access to banking services and products through a sustained and aggressive growth strategy.

“Needless to say that access to banking services and the contribution of the banking sector to economic development cannot be realised if the cost of accessing banking services continues to be high,” said Dr Kalyalya.

“The industry is characterised by high bank charges and interest rates. I therefore urge financial institutions to look into the issue of revising their pricing structure of banking products in order to increase access to financial services. As Bank of Zambia, we have taken up access to financial services as one of our strategic objectives for the period 2008-2011.”

And Barclays Bank Zambia chairman Jacob Sikazwe said the bank would remain committed to its goal of driving excellence in the financial services industry in Zambia even under the most difficult economic environment arising from the global financial meltdown.

Labels: BANKING, BARCLAYS BANK, BOZ, DENNY KALYALYA, JACOB SIKAZWE

posted by MrK @ 6:05 PM