New Transactions Law for Zambia

The law, the ‘Personal Property Security Interest Act’, creates a legal framework that will allow borrowers to use moveable collateral, such as equipment, machinery, inventory, and other types of moveable property to access finance. It will especially help those who do not own non-moveable collateral (such as land), including many women entrepreneurs.

Elaine MacEachern, Global Specialist, Secured Transactions and Collateral Registries for the World Bank Group’s Finance and Markets Global Practice, said: “The enactment of this law is a critical first step in developing a secured lending framework in Zambia that protects the rights of all types of regulated financial institutions, microfinance institutions, and leasing companies, encouraging them to provide financing secured by moveable collateral. To ensure this framework is complete, we must continue working with the Government of Zambia to build an online personal property security registry system.”

The establishment of a modern collateral registry in Zambia will allow small businesses and individuals lacking traditional collateral (such as land or real estate) to register their moveable assets as collateral in order to secure a loan from a financial institutions or other lending institutions.

By 2020, the project aims to have generated $2 billion in financing to firms and benefited 6,500 SMEs, 1,200 micro enterprises, and 1,200 women entrepreneurs.