Its not about firing Kalyalya but his replacement…
Dr Denny Kalyalya is not the first BOZ governor to be fired. In fact looking at the number of years that previous governors served, Kalyalya is somewhat of an outlier having served for 5 years. Most governors served 2 to 3 years on average. Dr Fundanga served the longest having served for at least 10 years.
So why has there been so much noise following the firing of Kalyalya?
It is mostly to do with Kalyalya’s replacement.
Christopher Mvula does not have solid experience in economic management, public finance or finance in general. Mvunga served as deputy minister for a short period. After that he was appointed deputy secretary to the Cabinet for economic management, a role that is not well defined and only filled at the whim of a sitting president. In short it may not be a key role.
Then there is what appears to be Mvunga’s personal life challenges. To be fair most of the bad publicity that Mvunga received in this regard came shortly after he was appointed deputy minister. Maybe he was a bit excited then. Otherwise he has lived a bit more quietly since then. But those videos and pictures from a point in his history are not helping matters.
Also Mvunga’s qualification is another weak point especially for someone without significant experience in economic management. The ACCA was designed for financial and strategic management and not for monetary policy implementation. In fact the qualification does not even have any detailed discourse on economics. It appears Mvunga has not gone on to study anything beyond ACCA to deepen his academic experience.
These things put together have the potential to shake the markets’ confidence in the economy and can lead to further bleeding of the Kwacha and deepen our economic malaise. Trust and confidence are huge assets in economics and business in general.These two qualities have long eluded the Edgar Lungu administration which has largely contributed to our economic challenges.
There are many at BOZ, ministry of finance and the country in general who could have comfortably fitted into Kalyalya’s large shoes including some PF aligned people if that was the objective. This is not a personal attack on Chris Mvunga but the President needed to appoint someone with proven capacity to help steer our troubled economy for the good of us all.
And having said this, maybe it is time for the nation to consider constitutionalising security of tenure for the governor of the Bank of Zambia as it is with central banks in others countries especially those with developed and stable economies.