Rural Finance initiative progresses

THE Rural Finance Expansion Programme (RUFEP) is currently working with 44 partners in driving financial services in rural areas.

RUFEP Programme Coordinator, Michael Mbulo, said the 44 partners were in different categories ranging from providing financial inclusion to linking savings groups to the formal financial sector.

Mr Mbulo said in an interview that REFEP was working with companies such as the World Vision and Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) among others.

“We are developing applications working with solar energy providers that can enable people in rural areas access electricity.

“Under this, consumers pay using agency and mobile banking, no cash involved and we have 22 companies under this category. It enables people to buy water pumps and so on,” he said. Mr Mbulo said RUFEP was also working with Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) to support mobile registration of companies.

He explained that under this partnership, rural organisations that were informal could be formalised so that they could easily engage with formal financial institutions. Mr Mbulo said RUFEP was also working with Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to make sure that as financial services were being taken to rural areas, there was fairness with the way players were conducting their business.

At policy level, Mr Mbulo said, RUFEP was supporting Government to come up with policies conducive for operations of financial service providers in rural areas.

He explained that the role of RUFEP was to support Government come up with policies that could be supportive to the financial service providers such as Commercial Banks and insurance companies.

“RUFEP is a Government programme, we are in the area of promoting financial inclusion.

“We encourage different financial providers to take their services to rural areas because we have people there who do have access to financial services. We have various projects,” Mr Mbulo said.