Finance Minister Bwalya Ng’andu has challenged banks to come up with alternative banking strategies that will make debt servicing easier for customers during the COVID-19 period.
Dr. Ng’andu says the rise in Covid-19 infections has resulted in a significant strain on the health care system and has crippled fiscal budgets worldwide.
The finance minister was speaking in Lusaka today during the launch of the Development Bank of Zambia -DBZ- COVID-19 Relief Package worth 120 million dollars.
Dr. Ng’andu said such strategies help to mitigate the negative economic and financial impacts of the pandemic in the country.
Meanwhile, DBZ Board Chairperson Pinalo Chifwanakeni said the COVID-19 relief package gives the existing DBZ clients an opportunity to continue their debt servicing obligations without the burden of servicing the interest component.
Professor Chifwanakeni said clients who sign up for the package will only need to service their principal repayment obligations through the relief period under the prevailing terms and conditions.
And DBZ Managing Director Samuel Bwalya said the relief package is part of the bank’s new strategic vision and is a demonstration of how the bank is being repositioned to become an active player in the country’s development process.
Package seems rather late!
Strategic planning as a crisis rages! Not really recommended but it depends. DBZ challenges are largely beyond DBZ’s control. If there are local business success stories wht can DBZ do? Government, DBZ, business and academia can look for the answers if they’re sufficiently challenged. This illusion of having a successful financial sector without a successful non-financial business sector cannot be sustained. It’s time to roll our sleeves and get to work. We hv talked too much already.
If there no local business success stories, wht can DBZ do?