BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes
THE Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has so far approved K4 billion from the stimulus package which has been put in place to provide liquidity in the financial markets during the Covid-19 period.
The Central Bank in April this year put in place a K10 billion stimulus package to assist with liquidity to businesses during the Covid-19 period.
Out of the approved amount by the BoZ, K1 billion has so far been disbursed to Atlas Mara Zambia, Indo Zambia Bank and four non-bank Institutions.
BoZ Deputy Governor for Operations, Francis Chipimo, indicated that K4 billion was approved but only K1 billion had been drawn.
Dr Chipimo said applications worth K4.8 billion from both banks and non banks institutions had been received by the Central Bank.
He was speaking recently during a BoZ radio show.
“For those we have approved K4 billion but now about K1 billion has been drawn down.
“We are working with FSPs to make sure a faster draw down, the remaining K3 billion of the K4 billion approved. We want this support to get to the clients,” he said.
Dr Chipimo said 16 commercial banks had applied for the package out of which seven had been approved.
He also said the Central Bank had approved applications for seven non-banks institutions.
Dr Chipimo said the Cantral Bank was encouraging the banks to take up the facility and help their clients.
“We made adjustments to conditions where banks showed concerns so that they can draw the funding as quickly as possible.
“They key issues we have made to FSPs is that Covid -19 is a significant challenge on the health of an economic front , if we do not think medium to long term we will not come out of it as strong as we can,” he said.
Dr Chipimo stressed the need to support businesses during the Covid-19 period to ensure that they were able to recover more strongly going forward.
“So how we manage the crisis and support will say a lot about how strongly the economy will recover afterwards and in that sense, everybody has a role to play,” he said.
