The Bank of Zambia – BOZ has dispelled social media reports suggesting that K68 million cash has gone missing from the central bank after it was issued and shipped from Munich Germany by a named printing company last week.
Some social media reports indicate that government has printed an amount of K68 million in order to finance the wage bills and pay some Chinese constructors.
Speaking at a media briefing attended by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT at BOZ Head office in Lusaka on April 23, 2019, BOZ governor Dr. Denny Kalyalya said that fake news has the potential to undermine the operations of the bank as members of the public may start doubting the Kwacha as genuine currency.
Dr. Kalyalya said that the Central Bank does not get instructions to issue bank notes without consultations with key stakeholders. “when we receive money from printers, we issue it to the bank so they can actually buy it or exchanged one on one, so before the bank pays for that we don’t issue the notes and that money is not printed anyhow” he said
He further quoted the BOZ act article 41C which states that the “Central Bank should formulate monetary and supervisory policies that will ensure the maintenance of price and financial systems stability so to promote balanced macro-economic development and stability”.
In addition, the bank governor says it is for this reason that the Central Bank should issue notes to be legal tender in the republic and regulated all matters relating to the currency of the public.
And Bank of Zambia deputy governor Dr. Bwalya N’gandu says these reports are a total fabrication as there is a procedure involved in printing money.
He stated that it is not true that the bank has printed that amount of money adding that such news is intended to have a bad effect or damaging to the country’s economy hence the need for the public to refrain from perpetuating lies and begin to disseminate information based on the truth.
And an IT security analyst who spoke to ZBT on conditions of anonymity said that the instigators and initiators of this so called fake news can be found if the bank of Zambia is serious about investigating. There are institutions like ZICTA who with the right skill sets and personnel can easily find the perpetrators.
