It was created in 1925 by the government, which was unimpressed by the then private service offerings for paying remotely – basically sending cheques and banknotes by post! With the infrastructure in place, transfers via Postgirot quickly gained ground. Private banks took some time to react, but did so compellingly when in 1959 they founded Bankgirocentralen – the future leading clearing house in Sweden. Bankgirot also kick-started a long tradition of Swedish banks working together in the fields of payments. Numerous are their common services targeted at end-users, that is, households or businesses as payers or payees. Many were developed and then operated by Bankgirot, which became more than a pure clearing house. Today, Bankomat (ATMs) and Getswish (instant mobile payment service) are other examples of joint ventures that allow their owners, the banks, to offer joint payment services to customers. By collaborating on rules and standards for common payment instruments, banks enabled payments between their customers. Basically, you were not limited to making payments within the same bank, a closed-loop system, as it is sometimes called. Broadening the network of payers and payees provided a reach that increased the efficiency of the overall payment system. Increased digitalisation also meant that sharing infrastructure and development costs was cost-effective for the banks. Most recently, the major Swedish banks have joined forces with Danish and Finnish equals to build a Nordic clearing platform – the P27 initiative. As well as further exploiting economies of scale, the intention is to smooth payments across borders within the Nordics.

Much in the same way, the Zambian private sector in general and Celtel Zambia plc in particular has the challenge of opening up to creditworthiness scrutiny and withstanding world-class due diligence by recognising and upholding good corporate governance norms of transparency, accountability and fairness. We are also aware that a formal sovereign credit rating undertaken by international credit rating agencies would not only further open up Zambia to global financial markets but also permit the appropriate reflection of our sovereign creditworthiness or risk premium in private sector financial dealings, which we believe is currently much better than generally held by both domestic and offshore market participants. In other words a good sovereign rating would improve the terms and conditions of international financial dealings for the Zambian private sector and businesses which could also be passed on to consumers in terms of affordable pricing and improved product quality. Ladies and gentlemen, today’s event therefore is an opportunity for honest introspection, though, this time not about the potential of our economy but about our own private and collective resolve of translating this potential into jobs, incomes and a quality life for all. We all need to recognise and  BIS Review 126/2006  1  understand that our commitment to upholding good corporate governance practices in both the public and private sectors and the resultant confidence and trust of our citizens, customers and clients be it in Government policies or private sector goods and services is inescapable for the long term health of both our society and businesses.