The emergency credit line the central bank opened at the depth of the drought has been wound up. In a statement reported by Zambia Monitor on Tuesday 3 November, the Bank of Zambia said its K5 billion Stability and Resilience Facility had been closed, having been fully taken up, with applications worth K8.5 billion received for the K5 billion on offer.
The facility was launched in December 2024, after the 2023/24 El Niño drought cut food production and the water behind the hydro-electric dams, to protect the stability of the financial system and keep credit flowing to the businesses the drought and the power cuts had hurt most. The money was channelled through banks and other financial service providers, which on-lent it to farms and to micro, small and medium enterprises affected by load shedding, at concessional rates, with a repayment moratorium and tenors of up to seven years.
Where the money went
According to the bank's assistant director for communications, Besnat Mwanza, the funds went to agriculture, energy solutions and other productive activity, including climate-smart farming, irrigation, waste management and water reticulation. The bank's own journal, the Zambanker, had reported in its March edition that the facility reached full utilisation on 31 March 2026 and described it as having completed its primary mandate of injecting liquidity into the economy in support of productivity and energy security, with allocations to energy, agriculture, forestry and manufacturing.
The access window was originally 12 months to 31 December 2025 and was extended to 31 March 2026, the statement says. Mwanza said the bank was satisfied the facility had largely met its objectives.
One condition survives the closure. Financial service providers must pass any cut in the Monetary Policy Rate on to their SRF borrowers: the rate on an advance falls when the policy rate is cut but does not rise when it is raised. The bank says it will continue to monitor both how the disbursed money is used and how the loans perform.
The closure comes two days before the 2027 budget. The same edition of the Zambanker recorded the kwacha closing 2025 at K22.80 to the dollar after three quarters of appreciation, which the bank credited to improved foreign exchange supply, higher copper prices, the rating upgrades and progress under the IMF programme.
Sources: Zambia Monitor, “Bank of Zambia closes K5 billion business support facility” (3 Nov 2026); Bank of Zambia, “Zambanker — March 2026 edition” (Jun 2026); Zambia Monitor, “Bank of Zambia exhausts K5bn Resilience Fund as Kwacha gains strength” (15 Jun 2026).