##worthy economy following the attainment of the hipc completion point, the bank of zambia, together with government, is working on ensuring that our institutional arrangements are supportive of keeping the global investor audience, amongst others, informed about domestic economic developments transparently and on an ongoing basis. for instance, we believe that obtaining a formal sovereign credit rating would help us build part of the necessary institutional arrangements of keeping all stakeholders informed. 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 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. in short, good governance works and we should all simply try it! in conclusion therefore, i would like on behalf of bank of zambia and indeed on my own behalf to commend the zambian commercial banks, international banks and development finance institutions that have participated in this syndication. this is not only testimony of their confidence in celtel zambia plc but confidence in the zambian people and the economy as well. i thank you.

order to ensure that brexit - induced corporate reorganisations do not compromise the ability of supervisors to hold firms to account in terms of regulatory expectations and maintain financial stability in an effective manner. of course, the ultimate impact of brexit will depend on the outcome of the negotiations between the eu and the uk. in addition to obtaining clarification on the nature of the new steady - state framework for trade in financial services between the eu and the u. k., it will also be important to specify transition arrangements, especially given the long - term nature of many financial contracts. it follows that the provisional brexit plans that are currently being formulated may have to be revised over time, if the course of these negotiations take unexpected twists. the value of optionality is high in the current environment : as the negotiations unfold, some options will lose value, while others will gain. accordingly, both firms and regulators will need to be pragmatic in recognising the inevitability of periodic revisions to business plans during this phase and the importance of a transitional period to avoid potentially - disruptive cliff effects in the workings of the financial system. the recent speeches by sabine lautenschlager have described some of the guiding principles in the context of transitioning of firms, for example in relation to the conditional use of existing internal models. finally, turning to the regulatory approach of the central bank of ireland, we have adopted a consistent position in relation to brexit - related supervisory queries. our regulatory approach is in line with sound practices being agreed across europe ; our responsibility is to ensure that firms authorised to operate from ireland demonstrate compliance with eu requirements. to this end, we seek to ensure that an entity will be substantively run from ireland and that the setup permits effective supervision, with local management accountable for decision making. 2 from a supervisory perspective, it is simply not sustainable to entertain proposals that fall short of these basic requirements. we are committed to providing transparency, consistency and predictability in our regulatory decisions. since ireland is already home to a large - scale international financial services centre, we have considerable experience in dealing with authorisation of financial firms. we are setting up new teams in order to manage brexit - related authorisation queries across banking, insurance, investment firms, investment funds and financial market infrastructures. this is part of a broader initiative to expand staffing levels in the bank in view of the expansion of our mandate in recent 2 / 3 bis