A growing number of Zambians are falling victim to illegal and predatory lending practices, with some micro-lending enterprises, locally known as ‘kaloba’, charging extortionate interest rates of 50 to as high as over 100 percent per month. These rates far exceed the legal maximum of 4 percent prescribed under Zambia’s Moneylenders Act, pushing borrowers deeper into unmanageable debt. Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Economist Naylor Kopakopa, described the situation as a reflection of worsening enforcement failures in the moneylending sector, particularly among lenders operating outside the direct supervision of the Bank of Zambia (BoZ)....
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