Lusaka, Zambia – 9th September 2020: Zambia Industrial Commercial Bank Limited (ZICB) has partnered with Smart Zambia to facilitate the collection of deposits from small-scale farmers as their contributions for the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP).
For the period from late July up to Monday, the 6th of September 2020, the Bank had supported over 310,000 farmers and collected over K126 million. Working with its partners, namely Zoona, Zamtel, MTN, Paygo, and Probase, ZICB leveraged digital financial platforms to reach farmers in 78 districts across all the 10 provinces of Zambia.
The amount that ZICB collected in the report period represented over 40% of the total national amount from among the six banks that were participating in the exercise.
Speaking during the occasion to flag-off the distribution of farming inputs for the 2020/2021 farming season by President Edgar Lungu at Chipembi College of Agriculture, ZICB CEO Ignatius Mwanza said that the number of farmers that the Bank had supported and the value of its collections were more than was achieved in the previous season due to the implementation of digital invocations the Bank had done with Smart Zambia. He further stated that ZICB’s digital solutions were ready for use in the pay-out exercise to agro-dealers as well as other Smart Zambia initiatives such as Social Cash Transfer, FRA farmer payments, ZRA payments, and NAPSA pay-outs.
Mr. Mwanza, who commended the Government for the timely commencement of the distribution of farming inputs for the 2020/2021 farming season, reiterated the commitment of ZICB to continue supporting the efforts of the government that is aimed at poverty alleviation and the attainment of food security for the country.
On Wednesday, the 9th of September 2020, the Republican President, His Excellency Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu, flagged off the FISP 2020/2021 farming inputs distribution exercise in Chisamba, Central Province.