THE Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has so far disbursed nearly K1.75 billion out of the K10 billion Medium-Term Refinancing Facility, with Atlas Mara Bank receiving the highest amount of any financial institution of K533 million.

In a status update on the K10 billion Refinancing Facility as at September 4, 2020, BoZ revealed that around K1.75 billion had so far been disbursed to businesses through their respective Financial Service Providers (FSPs), representing 17 per cent of the total available funds from the Facility.

This is up from K1.1 billion that had been disbursed by July 29 and K875.16 million, which had been disbursed one month prior on June 30.

Data shows that the cash disbursed by last Thursday had gone through 11 FSPs, with six commercial banks and five non-banking financial institutions.

From the six banks, a nominal value of over K1.5 billion was disbursed, while the five non-banking institutions channelled K221.4 million to their respective clients, representing 87.3 per cent and 12.67 per cent of the funds disbursed, respectively.

African Banking Corporation Zambia Limited, trading as Atlas Mara in Zambia, topped the list of any financial institution having received the highest amount of K533 million of the funds so far, with Stanbic Bank Zambia Limited in second place with K494.4 million, while Indo-Zambia Bank received nearly K321 million.

On the non-banking financial institution side, Pulse Financial Services Limited (PFSL) accessed K74 million, the highest in its sector, leaving Izwe Loans and Xtenda having received K72 million and K70.5 million, respectively.

In terms of the number of beneficiaries who accessed the loans, 12,380 were individuals or households from non-banks, while 773 were from the “other customer” category, bringing the total to 13,153 beneficiaries.

From the banks, only five individuals or households accessed the loans, with 240 from the “other customer” category, bringing the total to 245 recipients.

The BoZ has approved a total of 20 advances from both banks and non-banks worth a combined nominal value of nearly K5.4 billion.

This arises from a total number of 28 loan applications from the entire FSPs, worth a combined nominal value of nearly K10.2 billion.

In April, 2020, the BoZ established the Refinancing Facility to enable FSPs support businesses and households that had been hard-hit by COVID–19.

The Facility has an initial amount of K10 billion and tenors of five years for priority sectors identified in the Seventh National Development Plan (agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and energy) and three years for other sectors.