BIS Review 131/2009  1  Some ground-breaking market studies that have helped characterise both the demand and supply side issues peculiar to the Zambian financial sector have been undertaken. Most of you will be aware of the 2005 FinScope study findings which showed that only 33% of Zambia’s adult population had access to any formal or informal financial service or product. Arising from this, Government in collaboration with cooperating partners developed a performance assessment framework, under which a target of at least 50% by end-2009 has been set for the level of financial access. The findings of the on-going follow up Survey, whose results are due to be finalized by the end of this year, will give us an indication of the direction and level of access today. Honourable Minister, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, before the end of FSDP Phase I, which ran from July 2004 to June 2009, it became quite apparent that a number of challenges and recommendations would arise which would not be possible to implement within the initial five year period approved by Cabinet in 2004. In addition, there were new developments, coupled with key recommendations from the second Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) of 2008, which required to be incorporated into the FSDP. Therefore, the second phase is envisaged to deal with longer-term issues pertaining to the overall strengthening of the legal framework for the financial system.
It is for this reason that we are gathered here today as stakeholders to share information on the progress to date and to adopt a strategic implementation framework for the work that remains to be done. Distinguished Guests, the tremendous support of the various stakeholders to the agenda of the FSDP cannot go unnoticed. The technical and financial support provided by a number of our development partners, including the Swedish Government, the World Bank, IMF, DFID, the United States Treasury and FIRST Initiative have gone a long way in slowly but surely making this vision a reality. The Bank of Zambia and the Government are, therefore, most indebted to our cooperating partners for helping us build capacity in our financial sector. Honourable Minister, the support of stakeholders from financial and other institutions on the various working groups has also been instrumental in facilitating the implementation of various FSDP activities. Further, the coordinating role of the FSDP Secretariat, anchored by the Bank of Zambia, has been key to the implementation of the FSDP. For this reason, we at the Bank of Zambia hope that the same level of technical, financial, material and morale support will be accorded to Phase II of the programme by all stakeholders. Ladies and Gentlemen, in recognising the critical role played by various stakeholders represented here, the work of the FSDP has, by design, taken a consultative approach in the identification of priority areas, formulation of strategies and the design of implementation frameworks.