- - - to provide financial knowledge to women in community, or schools ( primary and secondary schools ), and enhance their entrepreneurship. similarly, in 2021, the ministry of women ’ s affairs and the nbc conducted “ women entrepreneurs talk program ” to promote financial inclusion and enhance digital financial literacy to women, woman enterprises, and woman university students. under the “ catalyzing women ’ s entrepreneurship project ”, the nbc has been closely cooperating with unescap to initiate training and seminar for women and woman enterprises to enhance their financial management knowledge and increase their financial accessibilities and usage. the nbc has also been cooperating with good return to establish “ let ’ s talk money ” campaign, which was launched in 2016. so far, the nbc and good return had successfully achieved phase 1 of the campaign which consists of 6 educational videos, a comic book, a mobile application called nbc - edu, as well as the creation of “ let ’ s talk money ” facebook page and website. in addition, let ’ s talk money phase 2 “ little by little ” has also seen the delivery of 4 financial literacy videos, which has since reached hundreds of thousands of people through social media platform. the nbc and good return also conducted a training, targeted at representatives from cambodia women entrepreneurs association ( cwea ) and cambodian women for peace and development ( cwpd ), which helps the women deliver face - to - face training to women entrepreneurs and garment workers respectively. last but not least, the nbc also has been working closely with the association of banks in cambodia ( abc ) and cambodian microfinance association ( cma ) to initiate various activities and campaigns to increase financial literacy for the public, especially for women. although financial inclusion is a journey, i believe that we have done quite a lot so far to help equip women and women entrepreneurs with foundational financial knowledge needed for their daily lives as well as businesses. distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen! i believe that the potential of young women and women entrepreneurs shall not only be limited by social and cultural barriers or the environment they live. on the contrary, they should have equal opportunities to release their full potential in every endeavor. to this end, immediate supportive measures shall be addressed to strengthen their skills, business linkages. for that, participation from all relevant stakeholders is needed. this is why we - act project is such a powerful example of how one can make a lot of impact in this space. i believe that the achievements to be presented

strive for survival on far less than one us dollar a day and like in many other african countries there are high hiv / aids rates and indebtedness which have contributed to persistent low economic performance. thus, our government ’ s focus with assistance from cooperating partners has to increasingly be on poverty alleviation via income generation and micro enterprise stimulation, using small business development and microfinance as mechanisms to improve household standards. following the structural adjustment period, particularly from the early 1990s, affordable and publicly funded rural financial services have collapsed. a private microfinance movement, though still in its infancy, has had to emerge offering modern microfinance services. today in zambia we have an interesting blend of microfinance institutions that are private sector, for - profit firms, and non - profit, non - governmental organizations ( ngos ). although expansion is much slower in rural areas, growth is evident along the line of rails and the peri - urban areas of our country. invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, in 1999, a survey of the microfinance market in zambia was conducted to determine the status of the microfinance market and its players, and the basis for establishing regulation and supervision of the industry. the survey revealed that although most microfinance institutions were exceptionally weak, they had the potential to grow as an industry and to provide sustainable financial services to the majority zambians. the results of the survey enabled us to recognize that appropriate legislation, regulation and supervision were essential to assist this young industry to grow and be able to find investors, expand and provide sustainable services to an increasing number of low - income groups. accordingly, we have placed our focus on the establishment of a regulatory and supervisory framework that would encourage responsible growth and create a safe, sound, stable and efficient environment in which microfinance institutions can operate. the regulation development process that we have adopted has been a regular system of consultations with stakeholders and various interested parties. we have managed to achieve this through public and focus group discussions and one - to - one meetings with key players in the market. further, we have also made consultations with supervisory bodies, practitioners and other stakeholders from other countries at various workshops as well as regional and international training forums. i am happy to note that some of the countries we have been sharing ideas with are represented at this forum. i wish to acknowledge the valuable information and lessons that these different forums have provided to us in developing the regulatory and supervisory framework for microfinance in zambia. i