DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES USERS HIT 4 MILLION
OVER four million Zambians have access to digital financial services using mobile phones as of end last year, the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has said.
The Central bank has therefore launched the Association for Digital Finance Practitioners (ADFP).
BoZ director payment systems Lazarus Kamanga said statistics indicated that over four million Zambians were able to access digital financial services as of December 2018.
Mr Kamanga said the development was an indication that digital financial services were advancing.
He was speaking in Lusaka yesterday during the launch of the ADFP.
“It has been quite exciting; as end December 2018, the numbers are very impressive. We are talking about close to four million Zambian being able to transact financial transactions through their mobile phones,” he said.
Mr Kamanga however said more still needed to be done to encourage mobile phone penetration and added that the mobile penetration currently stands around 78 and 80 percent.
“When you look at the bank accounts in terms of people who can be serviced through the banks, the numbers are still very low and we think through mobile phone services, we should be able to reach a lot of people,” he said.
On ADFP, Mr Kamanga said BoZ was ready to propagate any regulation that needed to be done to ensure that the digital services reached every corner of Zambia.
ADFP is working closely with the Financial Sector Deepening Zambia (FSDZ) to promote digital finance products and services usage.
According to FSDZ chief executive officer, Betty Wilkinson, the digital financial services industry in Zambia had experienced rapid growth in recent years.
Ms Wilkinson experienced that this was due to enhancements from both supply and demand side.
“From the supply side perspective, technological progress has played an important role in the rapid growth of this industry. Technology has also played a part of efforts to drive down the costs of financial services. This enhancement is being propelled by the increasing availability of ICT infrastructure,” she said.