The Bank of Zambia (BOZ) has dispelled allegations suggesting that the central bank and the Ministry of Finance are working on a Statutory Instrument (SI) to ban the holding of foreign currency accounts in commercial banks by individual and private corporates in Zambia.
But the institution has not taken any technical or legal action against the originators and perpetrators of the allegations, a move that may suggest that this matter may have been a subject under discussion. If this matter was serious enough to warrant the Central banks response as they did, they should ideally have asked for a retraction of the report, failure to which, taken legal action.
And BOZ Head of Corporate Communications Besnart Mwanza said the bank’s utmost priority is to play its role and help restore macroeconomic stability and revive economic growth in the midst of a challenging economic environment that has been significantly impacted by the COVID 19 Pandemic.
According to information made available to Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Mwanza explained that the exchange rate policy in Zambia will continue to be founded on a market-determined exchange rate as this is the most appropriate way in which economic imbalances are resolved.
She said such unsubstantiated reports mislead the public and if left unchallenged, have the potential to cause panic and destabilize the financial sector and the economy as a whole.
She added that reports of this nature also have the potential to tarnish the image of the country, both locally and abroad therefore members of the public are urged to treat such reports as false and unfounded. The Bank of Zambia has also urged members of the public to use social media responsibly and desist from circulating false news.
Another option available to BOZ is to work with ZICTA, a government agency which had announced in 2019 that they now have a way of tracing the perpetrators of miss-information on social media.
The Zambian government had introduced mandatory SIM card registration of mobile phones and acquired security and high tech equipment and resources capable of tracing the originators of any abuse that may be deemed detrimental to the overall economy of the country.
