Francis Chipimo, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Zambia – winner of the 2026 Nestor Espenilla Jr. Financial Inclusion Innovation Award.

Zambia is a young nation: 58 per cent of its population is aged between 16 and 34. As this generation enters higher education, employment, entrepreneurship, e-commerce and financial independence, it expects financial services that are accessible, immediate and responsive to its circumstances.  At the Bank of Zambia (BoZ), we must ask ourselves one simple question: what does financial inclusion look like for this young generation, and how can we ensure financial services meet their needs?

Driving inclusion through digital financial services

Traditional banking channels alone won’t suffice.  We must be open to new ideas, to adapting our behavior, and to forging new partnerships.  This is why embracing financial technology has become central to Zambia’s financial inclusion landscape. And the result has been astonishing: Access to and usage of digital financial services have helped raise the level of financial inclusion in the country from 69% in 2020 to just over 80% in 2025.

Mobile money has been the principal driver of inclusion, climbing from just 58% to 76% in the same period. For a predominantly young adult population, these developments demonstrate how technology can reduce dependence on physical branches and make everyday payments and other financial services more accessible.

Facilitating fintechs innovation

Fintechs’ ability to tap into the needs and trends of the underserved markets has made them indispensable to youth financial inclusion. The challenge is to give innovative ideas, including fintechs, a chance to thrive without putting consumers at risk.

In 2021, the BoZ launched its first regulatory sandbox – a controlled space where innovators can test their new products (under close BoZ supervision) with a limited number of real customers before launching their innovation publicly.  

To qualify, applicants must show genuine consumer benefit, set out their risk safeguards, and show how they plan to exit the testing phase. Innovation gets room to grow, and consumers stay protected.  This approach has helped more fintechs to enter the market faster. According to the UNCDF, the number of fintechs in Zambia more than doubled between 2018 and 2023.

The importance of interoperability

Of course, an innovative product is only part of the picture. Interoperability is key to making financial innovations thrive.  This is where Zambia’s financial infrastructure – the national payment switch, which operates 24/7 and 365 days – comes into play. It links fintechs, commercial banks, mobile money service providers and other payment service providers, allowing customers to make payments instantly across the ecosystem and beyond borders.

We’ve also extended the operating hours of our Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, enabling faster, more efficient services by allowing people to transact for longer hours during the week and on Saturdays. Our goal is to extend this to round-the-clock operation in the future.

Safety through financial education

The integration of financial education in our school system since 2017 has helped prepare young people to plan, save, and transact safely. The BoZ also uses radio programmes, social media and mobile messaging to raise awareness among young people about the benefits and risks of mobile banking and payments.

Safety is an important part of that conversation.  Making services available is one thing; helping people understand how to use them responsibly is just as important.

Going forward, we also hope to harness technology to fight off fraud. A biometric identification system will soon help us track fraudulent activity while also bringing more underserved people into the formal financial system.

Turning possibility into reality

While traditional, brick-and-mortar banking has proved restrictive in our environment, innovation has helped us build a closer, more interactive relationship with the people we serve – be it women, rural communities, or underserved youth.

For me, that is what makes this journey exciting. It is not simply about the next product or the latest technology. It is about bringing possibility into people’s lives.  At BoZ, our ambition is to build a future where possibility gets turned into everyday reality: financial services that reach more people, serve them better, and build a more resilient Zambian economy.