The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) says it has officially launched its new strategic plan, covering the period 2020 to 2023.
In a statement issued to Money FM News by the Bank’s Communications Division, the strategic plan which was launched by BoZ Governor Dr. Denny Kalyalya, represents the priority areas the Bank wants to concentrate on during the stipulated four-year period.
And Dr. Kalyalya said the Bank has picked on Financial Stability and Financial Inclusion as the two focus areas for the Plan which has been launched under the theme “Building an Inclusive and Resilient Financial Sector.”
“The 2020 to 2023 Strategic Plan represents the priority areas the Bank wants to concentrate on during this four-year period. In this vein, the Bank has picked on Financial Stability and Financial Inclusion as the two focus areas for the Plan,” Dr. Kalyalya said.
He stated that in the area of Financial Stability, the Bank will strengthen Micro-prudential and Macro-prudential Regulation and Supervision, Develop and strengthen financial market infrastructures oversight, enhance data collection, management, and application.
Dr. Kalyalya further said the Bank will focus on Promoting Digital Financial Services, Pushing the Rural Finance frontier forward, Increasing availability of Children and Youth friendly financial products, adding that the Bank is aware of the huge challenges that still need to be addressed to bring more Zambians into the banked population.
He said the other focus areas are disseminating Zambia’s financial inclusion information and mainstreaming Gender in the Financial Sector.
“Therefore, by adopting financial inclusion as a focus area, we want, among other things, to contribute to the attainment of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy formal financial inclusion target of 70% by 2022 and to reduce the gender gap to 5% by 2023,” he stated.