Barclays pumps $4bn in Zambian economy

By BUSINESS REPORTER BARCLAYS Bank Zambia has invested more than US$4 billion in the economy through various sectors, managing director Mizinga Melu has said.

The sectors are mining, agriculture, manufacturing, energy and Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs).

Ms Melu said her institution was actively involved in the country’s development agenda as evidenced by the US$4 billion investment in key sectors of the economy.

Ms Melu was speaking in an interview yesterday at the just ended Zambia’s 92nd Agricul- tural and Commercial Show in Lusaka celebrated under the theme "Sustainable Economic Empowerment."

She emphasised that the bank continued investing in the mining sector which was yielding positive results particularly to support the SMEs who were the suppliers of the mining companies. “When you look at the mining sector and the investment that we have put there, it is the various SMEs who are really providing solutions to the mining sector to make sure that they continue facilitating what they do,” Ms Melu said.

The SME sector, she said, continued to receive loans and that the bank had introduced the Business Integrator

Ms Melu said it was important to start treating the SMEs as corporate clients and start offering them workable trading solutions.

She said the bank had in the past provided financial literacy training to the SMEs and had partnered with organisations such as Nyamuka Zambia.

Ms Melu also said the bank had partnered with Zambia Information and Technology Authority (ZICTA) to further drive the digital platform.

“We have an agreement with ZICTA for us to now start looking at the digital platform. We want to be a digitally led bank and we want to encourage the SMEs to be doing banking through digital platforms,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms Melu said Zambia’s economic fundamentals remained stable and positive. “I expect the outlook to be positive and I think there is one thing that we got right is the monetary policy. I think as a country we got the monetary policy right and the inflation has remained in single digit that is commendable and this is going to continue up to the end of the year,” Ms Melu said.