By DELPHINE ZULU –
THE Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ) has financed 48 Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with loans amounting to K104,511,200 within the Zambian economy from the US$20 million Eurobond it received.
But the bank has to date disbursed a total of  K117,745,638 million with part of these funds coming from the bank’s reflows showing an over-commitment of K13,234,438 million from the $20 million received under the Eurobond.
DBZ managing director Jacob Lushinga said due to oversubscription under the Eurobond fund, the bank’s current undisclosed commitments subscribed under Eurobond stood at K17,425,983 which the bank hoped to meet from its reflows and other resources.
“The bank has, since the receipt of the Eurobond proceeds credit line, financed 48 SMEs with loans amounting to K104,511,200 as at November 30, 2014, but to date a total of K117,745,638 million has been disbursed,” Mr Lushinga said.
In his submission to the Parliamentary Committee on Estimates, Mr Lushinga bemoaned the poor repayment system by the borrowers, saying 50 per cent had returned to the bank seeking for restructuring of the payment mode.
“The payment mode is up seven years with a grace period of some weeks but most had come back to reschedule the payment mode resulting into poor payment. The projects are doing fine,” he said.
Mr Lushinga said the funds had been disbursed in the agriculture sector, construction, services, tourism and hospitality, real estates and manufacturing.
Others are education, energy, information communication technology (ICT) and transport with Lusaka being the highest province recording K73,692,351 and Southern Province with K17,716,017.
Copperbelt Province is the third and recorded K15,562, 460 followed by Central with K15,365,793 and Luapula recorded K6,700,000.
Northern Province was disbursed with K5,000,000 with Eastern being the last to be disbursed with K1,135,000.
The managing director said the bank had further tried to foster financial inclusion by funding projects under the Eurobond in seven out of 10 provinces in the country.
“On the other hand the bank continues to provide financial assistance to clients in all 10 provinces of Zambia using funding from other sources,” Mr Lushinga said.