I will not dwell on the benefits that citizens and firms gain from having a stable currency like the euro in such a financial crisis, even though they do not often realise them. It is important not to forget it. Let me just recall how the US recession in the early 1990s affected Europe in 1992-93, leading – in the presence of uncoordinated economic policies within Europe – to serious economic and financial turbulence. The ERM crisis and the exit of the Italian lira and the British pound in the autumn of 1992 as well as the widening of the fluctuation bands of the ERM led to large changes in competitiveness, with an overall contractional impact even on the stronger economies such as Germany. It is difficult to imagine what would have happened in recent months without the euro. If the past is a good guide to understand the future, we can be sure that Italian inflation and interest rates would be higher, with negative repercussions on consumption and investment. We can only guess what our oil bill would now be if we had a weak currency instead of the euro. Likewise, just imagine the situation for households having mortgage debt who would have to pay substantially higher interest rates. Monetary stability requires a monetary policy focused on medium-term price stability. Especially in a phase of higher uncertainty such as the one we are currently experiencing there must be no doubt about the priorities of the central bank, or about its strategy and independence.
Under the second phase of the FSDP, access to finance by the various strata of society, including access based on gender is identified as a key weakness to be addressed. The development of the FSDP and its implementation, therefore, reflects the priority attached by the government to this subject. The Bank of Zambia as the lead coordinator for the Financial Sector Development Plan (FSDP) has also incorporated Financial Inclusion as one of the key objectives under its Strategic Plan for the period 2012 – 2015, namely; to increase financial inclusion to 50 per cent of the population by 2015. The strategies under this objective include the following: 1. Develop an index to measure the depth and breadth of financial services in Zambia. 2  Promote agency banking and mobile banking. 3  Develop guidelines for branchless banking framework. 4  Establish a unified collateral registry framework. 5  Establish Financial Education Coordinating Unit (FECU). 6  Undertake financial education interventions specific to BoZ mandate. 7  Revise legal and regulatory framework to promote financial inclusion. 8  Develop incentive mechanisms to encourage outreach of financial services to rural areas and other financially excluded citizens. In order to ensure that persons who are excluded, both in urban and rural areas do not encounter difficulties in opening bank accounts, the know your customer (KYC) procedures for opening and operating accounts has been simplified.