The goal of financial inclusion in Zambia’s 8th national development plan

Zambia has not trailed behind other nations in promoting financial inclusion, one of its deliverables in its 2022-2026 Eighth National Development Plan. The analysis focused on the likelihood of reaching this goal and the implications for bank operating stability. A mixed research (quantitative and qualitative) approach was used and drew respondents from several remote areas in Zambia. A hypothesis test on the observed against the hypothesised mean (p-value = 1.93e-38 and <0.005) rejected the null to accept the alternative presupposition that banks have a relevant role in achieving financial inclusion, but they are not a necessary ingredient. The correlation test also aligned at both 95 and 99% confidence levels, that supported the null hypothesis to conclude that there is no correlation between the preferred channels of financial services and the adequacy of financial inclusion. Respondents felt that the financial inclusion services would still be offered at basic satisfactory levels regardless of the available form of financial service provider. The Kruskal-Wallis test supplemented the findings with p = 3.09667e-20(<0.05) that rejected null to conclude that any form of financial services is statistically significant in delivering basic financial inclusion in Zambia. The implications for banks are the risks for continuous survival because of the popular user-friendly alternative channels. It is recommended that the Bank of Zambia should sustain the relative relevance of formal banks by balancing their contributions with other innovative financial service channels. Banks should integrate with new market entrants, or the future will have a banking system without banks. Regulators must support banks’ survival traits such as the light set of criteria in their Know Your Customer (KYC) package.