Working Paper

Census of Financial Cooperatives in Zambia

This report presents the results of the first ever census of Financial Cooperatives (FCs) in Zambia. Covering all the ten provinces, the census brings to light some of the key statistics and trends that are going to be key as the Government seeks to revive the sector. The census was necessitated for by the heightened interest in the revival of Cooperatives in general by the Government and subsequent need to revise the Cooperatives Act all which needed Baseline Data, Information and knowledge of the state of the existing cooperatives. Since the collapse of financial cooperatives in the 1990s, a lot there has been an information gap about Cooperatives and the role they play in the quest for financial inclusion. To bridge this information gap, ZIPAR embarked on a census to count the number of existing Financial Cooperatives and assess their performance.