• Zee Women’s banking is amongst the many solutions that Zanaco offers.
• The banking sector now has more products tailored to the financial needs of women and women-led businesses.
• Women customers will be able to access loans without collateral.

Vice President Mutale Nalumango has pledged government’s commitment to delivering programs aimed at uplifting the welfare of women and young people in the country.
Officiating at the launch of the Zee Women’s Banking Proposition by Zanaco Bank, Mrs. Nalumango noted that women are the largest group in Zambia’s population and have a higher potential to create more jobs and wealth.
She commended Zanaco for developing gender specific and smart solutions, which help give a special spark to jump-start the social and economic transformation for women across the country.
“It is significant to note that this event has been held to recognize special contributions made by the womenfolk in developing Zambia through trade and investments in various. Therefor their requirements need special attention among the catalogue of services provided by Zanaco.”
“I am pleased to learn that Zanaco has a product called Zee Women’s banking which is amongst the many solutions that Zanaco offers. What is particularly important is that the proposition is also geared towards supporting women led-Small and Medium Enterprises,” Mrs. Nalumango stated.
Mrs. Nalumango further said it was gratifying to note that the banking sector now has more products tailored to the financial needs of women and women-led businesses, especially those running small and medium enterprises in urban and rural areas.
“The government will therefore continue to partner with Zanaco in implementation of social and economic programmes for the greater good of Zambia and her people. My gratitude goes to Zanaco for making women become bigger, strong and reliable business people,” she added.
And speaking at the same event, Zanaco Board member Chearyp Sokoni said under the Zee Women’s Banking, women customers will be able to access loans without collateral at 20 percent interest rate from the previous 21 percent per year.
Ms. Skoni noted that collateral which many banks have been asking, has been a major hindrance to women to access loans from financial institutions.
“With technical support from the African development bank (AfDB) and the Africa Guarantee Fund (AGF), under the Africa Finance Initiative for Women, we have managed to simplify our business loan offering through updating our risk acceptance criteria thereby allowing us to extend credit facilities to our female customers with no collateral requirements. Let me repeat that Zanaco Zee women is extending credit facilities to all Zee women with no collateral requirements.”
“To add to this, Zanaco Zee Women also comes with credit facilities at a reduced rate of 20% from 21% per annum. Further, solutions such as the agricultural value chain financing undertaken in collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB) put an emphasis of ensuring women are able to access formal financial services in a much more convenient way,” Ms. Sokoni said.
She further revealed that the financial institution has actively been providing access to information since, April 2022, by facilitating topics on personal finance and relevant business topics in order to boost financial literacy and inclusion.
The Zee women proposition is anchored on driving access to finance through offering of various financial products and services, and, driving access to non-financial services such as knowledge, different products and markets.