Turning ACI Zambia Into a Market Institution
Using existing resources to build capacity, research, and a working partnership with the central bank
Anyone who has worked in treasury or markets knows how demanding the job is. If you want to be serious about it, you try to understand global developments well enough to explain them to clients. You track local liquidity, policy, and flows. You manage risk limits, reporting, and client demands. You do that while trying to build a career and live a sane life outside the dealing room.
No single practitioner can carry that entire load. Not a junior dealer. Not a senior trader. Not even a treasurer.
That is why markets all over the world rely on strong associations to support practitioners, set standards, and provide a structured interface with regulators.
ACI Zambia sits exactly in that space. The association has achieved a great deal over two decades: a functioning exam system, annual gatherings, relationships with the central bank, and a community that gives younger dealers their first sense of belonging to a profession. These are real accomplishments that deserve recognition.
The question now is what comes next. Does ACI remain mainly an exam and events platform, or does it grow into a proper market institution that helps build the rails the macro framework depends on?
1. What other associations already do
If anyone thinks this agenda asks for too much, it helps to look at how similar bodies work elsewhere.
ACI FMA globally. ACI Financial Markets Association, headquartered in Paris since its founding in 1955, represents over 9,000 members across 60 national associations. Its focus is good conduct, best market practice, education, and ethics. The global body operates formal working groups on topics such as industry regulation, treasury and ALM activity, and money market liquidity. ACI Romania, for example, contributed to elaborating the local master contractual framework for derivatives and repos. ACI France participates in the work of reflection, evolution, and security concerning monetary and financial markets. The model is not volunteers only. There is professional infrastructure behind the exams, standards, and engagement with regulators.
ACI South Africa. ACI South Africa states its vision clearly: “To inspire ethical conduct through education in the South African financial markets.” In practice, that means regular events, education, and close engagement with the South African Reserve Bank on topics such as market conduct and best practice.
A local comparator: Economics Association of Zambia. At home, the Economics Association of Zambia offers a useful example. EAZ has an Executive Director and a functioning secretariat. It organises national economic summits, runs policy dialogues, and partners with bodies like the Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research and international donors on thematic programmes. In August 2024, EAZ signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding with ZIPAR to enhance collaboration in policy analysis, dialogue, and capacity building. The Speaker of the National Assembly has publicly called on EAZ to provide insights to help parliamentarians debate with accurate figures. EAZ membership fees are modest by category, yet the association manages to produce visible institutional output. ACI Zambia’s subscriptions are concentrated and predictable, funded largely by member banks. The visible contribution to market structure could be greater.
The message from all of this is simple. What is being proposed here is not unrealistic. It is a scaled version of what other associations already do, adjusted for Zambia’s size and needs.
2. Professional backbone and ambition
ACI Zambia already has a secretary. That is a start. It is not enough for the kind of role the association could play.
If ACI wants to support a modern financial market, the ambition has to move from “we have a council and a secretary” to “we have a minimal but serious secretariat behind the council and committees.”
The ask is not for a large bureaucracy. It is for a small professional backbone that can: coordinate committees, technical forums, and relationships in a consistent way; serve as the point of contact for the central bank, regulators, development partners, and global ACI; manage the calendar and logistics so that volunteer practitioners focus on content rather than fighting with venues and email lists; and support a research function so that white papers and technical notes can be produced and archived.
Without people whose day job is to push ACI’s programme forward, the association will continue to rely on goodwill and free time. That model has limits, and we are already seeing them in the depth of market infrastructure and skills.
3. The AGM and the use of money
The funding question is sensitive but central to the debate.
The audited figures tell the story. In 2024, ACI Zambia collected K8,500 in subscriptions from 321 members: a total of K2,728,500. The Livingstone AGM cost K2,154,624, about 79% of that subscription revenue. In 2025, after the subscription rose to K10,000 and the number of paid-up members fell slightly to 314, subscription revenue reached K3,140,000. The Livingstone AGM still cost K2,100,449, around 67% of that line. Over the same two years, almost all “other income” went straight back out as training expenses; trainings largely pay for themselves. It is the AGM that absorbs between two-thirds and four-fifths of the subscription cheques that banks sign every year.
It is important to acknowledge what the AGM gets right. In a small market, the chance to take dealers, treasurers, and central bank staff out of Lusaka for a few days does build relationships and trust. Many younger members experience Livingstone as their first real sense of belonging to a professional community. Councils, including the ones I have served on, have approved these budgets openly, and members have voted for them with full information. No one has stolen the money. The question is not about integrity. It is about priorities.
A country whose most important economic rail is its financial market cannot afford to spend the bulk of its association budget on an annual three-day retreat, while the market has little to show by way of research, technical forums, or capacity deepening.
4. Guardrails, reallocation, and value
ACI Zambia is a democratic association. Councils propose budgets and members vote. That must remain.
What needs to change is the set of guardrails inside which those democratic choices are made. Governments that live with hard budget constraints eventually adopt fiscal rules. Germany’s debt brake is one example. The rule does not remove the right of parliament to vote. It simply forces choices to sit inside a framework that protects long-term stability.
ACI needs its own version of that discipline. One option is a constitutional amendment that caps how much of subscription revenue can be spent on a single annual event: for example, no more than 30% to 40% of subscription income in any year may go to AGM logistics and accommodation, with the rest ring-fenced for secretariat support, research, technical forums, and university programmes. Councils would still design budgets. Members would still vote. The rule would simply prevent the association from financing one weekend away with almost the entire annual subscription pool.
A more balanced structure would be: a Livingstone-style AGM once every three years, aligned with council elections, where you bring the market together, review the three-year strategy, and rotate leadership; and in the two intervening years, smaller AGMs closer to Lusaka, with lower cost and lower travel claims, prioritising financial buffers and programme activities.
Because the Livingstone trip is popular, it may also help to separate the principle from the destination. Members could retain the right to hold a Livingstone AGM once every three years, linked to elections, while using anonymous electronic voting to decide on any additional resort trips. If a clear majority of members still want to spend two-thirds of subscriptions on a retreat in a year of currency volatility and fiscal adjustment, they will at least be making that choice consciously and on the record. The point is not to remove democracy, but to give it a framework that reflects the opportunity cost.
The credible path is not to ask for more money now. The credible path is to reallocate first, prove value, and then review subscriptions.
Reallocate first. Use part of the existing subscription and event-sponsorship pool to fund a small secretariat, a basic research function, and a limited but serious programme of technical forums and outreach.
Prove value. Deliver visible outputs in the first one or two years: a standing practitioner forum with the central bank, with quarterly sessions and short summaries to members; one or two university chapters that run real programmes, not just names on a letterhead; a small set of white papers or market notes that banks and policymakers can refer to; and a joint literacy initiative where multiple banks support an ACI-led event.
Then review subscriptions. Only after ACI demonstrates this kind of value does it have the standing to discuss subscription levels, membership categories, or incremental contributions. Until then, the argument is about using what is already available more effectively.
For individual members, rebalancing the budget does not have to mean losing all personal benefit. The same funds that currently finance a full Livingstone weekend every year could support scholarships for advanced certifications, short secondments to partner markets, or funded places at ACI World or regional conferences in years when the AGM stays closer to Lusaka. The reward shifts from a party to a career advantage.
5. What deeper engagement with the central bank could look like
ACI already runs sessions with the central bank. The question is not whether engagement exists, but whether it goes deep enough to move needles.
Consider how the ACI FMA Money Market and Liquidity Working Group operated before its merger into the European Money Market Expert Committee in 2023: a standing forum where practitioners exchanged views and knowledge on market liquidity, treasury, payment and settlement, market infrastructures, regulation, and trends. The objective was not periodic networking. It was structured, sustained technical dialogue with defined outputs.
What would a similar model look like in Zambia? At the start of each year, ACI could announce to its members: these are the financial market gaps or areas of concern we have identified, in consultation with the Bank of Zambia. This year, we will tackle these gaps through these subcommittees, chaired by these practitioners. We will hold this number of quarterly sessions. These are our expected deliverables, and this is how the market will benefit.
That communication could go beyond members to the broader market. It signals that the association has a work programme, not just an events calendar. It gives the central bank a partner that arrives with an agenda rather than waiting to be invited. And it creates accountability: at the end of the year, members can ask what was actually delivered.
The sessions themselves could include technical white papers presenting potential solutions, authored by senior practitioners. ACI could invite, physically or virtually, technical experts from other markets to share guided experience on topics where Zambia is still building. Over the last 20 years of ACI, the only needle we have pushed meaningfully is bond market trading, and even that remains constrained. We have often expected the central bank to be the initiator. But how can the central bank be the innovator? It cannot. That is not its mandate. Innovation belongs to market participants, supported by an association that channels their collective voice.
None of this replaces supervision or regulation. It strengthens the practitioner side of the market so that the Bank of Zambia can focus on its core mandates.
6. Research and the missing white papers
One of the biggest gaps in our financial market is the absence of a structured research function inside the practitioner community.
Where are the white papers on topics such as: money market microstructure and the corridor; settlement and market infrastructure; behaviour of primary and secondary government bond markets; corporate balance sheet structures and currency risk; or product standards and documentation gaps?
There are individual presentations and slide decks inside banks. There are occasional reports from external consultants. There is little that sits under ACI, with practitioners’ names on it, and goes back into the market as a reference.
A concrete example: the overnight rate and the corridor. The Bank of Zambia treats the overnight interbank rate as its operating target. The policy rate sets the stance, and open market operations are supposed to supply or withdraw liquidity so that the overnight rate trades within a corridor around the policy rate. In theory this design leaves space for the market to speak through price, while the central bank leans against movements to keep the stance consistent.
Behaviour around that corridor tells a different story. When liquidity is heavy, the overnight rate almost never moves below the lower band. Prices cluster inside the corridor, regardless of what the books show. The reasons are complex: dealers expect that any quote that looks different will attract questions; it feels safer to sit near the middle of the band than to explain a price that reflects a glut of liquidity; and many banks can lend expensively and still place funds, so the competitive pressure to cut rates in a long market is weaker than textbooks assume. This has direct consequences for monetary transmission. If the overnight rate does not move with liquidity, the central bank receives a blurred signal.
A short ACI white paper on this topic, written by practitioners and reviewed by senior dealers and the Bank of Zambia, would do more for market development than a dozen presentations at the next AGM. It would create a reference point. It would signal that the practitioner community takes its role seriously. And it would give the central bank a document to respond to, opening a pathway for structured technical dialogue.
Another example: legislation currently before Parliament. The Banking and Financial Services Bill 2025 contains netting and close-out provisions essential for repo and derivatives market-depth. Without a netting framework, banks are reluctant to trade or lend to each other for fear that claims could not be safely settled in the event of a default. Has ACI held a technical session to explain to members what this bill will mean for the market? Has there been a session on how enforceable netting could transform the way pension funds and banks transact? With netting, a bank rolling over K120 million in a swap or repo does not have to send K120 million out to settle if K100 million is being rolled. It pays the K20 million difference and nets the rest. That is a fundamental change in how collateralised transactions work.
Has ACI facilitated technical engagement with the Pensions and Insurance Authority to discuss how banks and pension funds could move from collateralised fixed-term deposits to proper repos? Today, a pension fund might place a deposit with a bank and receive government bonds pledged as security for that deposit. But it is still a deposit. The pension fund has a claim against the bank, secured by the pledged bonds. If the bank defaults, the pension fund must enforce against the collateral: a complex, uncertain process.
In a proper repo, the structure is different. The bank sells the bonds to the pension fund at the start of the transaction and agrees to buy back equivalent bonds at a specified price on a specified future date. Legal title passes to the pension fund. It owns the bonds outright during the term and may use them, subject to its obligation to return equivalent securities at maturity. If the bank defaults, the pension fund already holds legal title and does not need to enforce a pledge. It simply applies the agreed close-out and valuation process under the repo agreement. That is the difference between a pledge and ownership, between a secured claim and an asset on your books.
Does the majority of the market know how to price a repo? Have we had a technical discussion to show pension fund trustees why a sale and repurchase transaction is better for them than a collateralised deposit?
What about warehouse receipts as potential collateral for repos with the Bank of Zambia, which the Agriculture Credits and Warehouse Receipts Bill could enable? These are live policy questions with direct implications for how the financial market will operate. An association that sits on the rails of the market should be convening the discussions.
ACI does not need a full research institute on day one. It needs to commit to building one over time. A practical starting point is: a research and publications committee; a target of two to three focused notes or white papers a year to begin with; a simple peer review process drawing on elder practitioners and academics; and a basic online archive of these documents. Over time, that can grow into an institute or permanent unit. For now, the key is to acknowledge that a serious market association without any written body of knowledge is incomplete.
7. University chapters and the next generation
The most enduring institutions are those that invest in their own succession. ACI Zambia has an opportunity to do something that would outlast any single council term: build a presence on university campuses that creates a pipeline of informed, motivated graduates who already understand what it means to work in financial markets.
This is not about adding another line to a brochure. It is about building chapters that actually function: student-led groups with faculty support, a defined programme of activities, and a connection to the professional community that gives members a head start.
A realistic path could look like this.
Year 1 to 2. Establish one or two ACI chapters at universities with strong business or economics programmes. Run a clear, limited programme of activities: two or three guest lectures by senior practitioners; one simple market simulation or trading game; a basic introduction to ACI exams and market careers; and, crucially, organised visits to dealing rooms. Some banks already run versions of these visits. ACI could coordinate across banks so that students experience different trading floors, different cultures, and different product emphases. Partner with existing bank-led campus events so that efforts align rather than overlap.
Year 3 to 5. Expand to more universities only if the first chapters are working. Introduce more advanced content and mentorship for students who show real commitment. Create a pathway where ACI student leaders can intern or shadow in dealing rooms, not only in generic banking roles.
The vision is a network of campus chapters that become feeders for the profession: places where students learn what a dealing room actually does, meet practitioners who can answer real questions, and begin to see themselves as future market professionals rather than just job seekers hoping for any opening in a bank.
On client and public development, ACI could start by supporting one joint ACI-branded event per year where multiple banks send speakers and ACI anchors the content around simple explanations of interest rates, foreign exchange, and credit. Build from there into a small annual calendar tied to existing initiatives such as Financial Literacy Week. The aim is not to create a parallel marketing arm for banks. The aim is to position ACI as a neutral voice on how the financial system works, in plain language.
8. A practical roadmap
For this to be practical, sequencing matters. Some of what is proposed here already happens in some form. The point is not to claim that nothing exists, but to go deeper, more consistently, with clearer deliverables.
Immediate term, within one year. Agree that the Livingstone AGM becomes a three-year event linked to elections, with more modest AGMs in other years. Ring-fence part of the savings for: a minimal secretariat role; quarterly technical forums with the central bank rather than ad hoc sessions; and one pilot university chapter with organised dealing room visits. Establish a research and publications committee with a mandate to produce at least one note, ideally on a live policy issue such as the netting provisions or warehouse receipts.
One to two years. Run the central bank practitioner forum on a quarterly rhythm and document it. Grow the pilot campus chapter into a functioning programme. Produce two to three market notes or white papers, with at least one addressing legislation before Parliament and its implications for market practice. Convene at least one session with the Pensions and Insurance Authority on the difference between collateralised deposits and proper repos. Hold at least one joint public literacy event.
Three to five years. Consider expanding the secretariat if the programme clearly justifies it. Add more university chapters only where there is demand and capacity. Build the research function into a recognised institute that can collaborate with bodies like ZIPAR, EAZ, and universities. Review membership structure and subscription levels, if and only if value is visible.
The vision does not need to change every three years with each new council. Councils should inherit and advance a shared long-term plan, not start again.
To make this concrete, ACI could begin with two simple deliverables.
Research and Publications Committee: draft mandate. Produce at least two practitioner notes or white papers a year on topics agreed with members and the central bank. Draw members from banks, the Bank of Zambia, and academia. Publish work on an ACI web page that becomes the archive of Zambian market practice.
Central Bank Practitioner Technical Forum: draft agenda for the first meeting. Review implications of the Banking and Financial Services Bill 2025 for interbank and derivatives markets. Discuss how netting and close-out provisions could enable pension funds to move from collateralised deposits to proper sale and repurchase transactions with banks. Agree on how upcoming legislative changes and operational adjustments will be communicated to dealing rooms.
None of this requires new law. It requires a decision that an association financed by the market will now also build the knowledge and infrastructure that the market needs.
9. A note on generational responsibility
Those of us who have served on past boards, myself included, have to be honest. Our generation did not always do enough on mentorship. We recycled the same names between banks instead of investing in non-exposed staff. We did not leave a strong written body of market knowledge behind us.
If we want to correct that, ACI is one of the places where the correction must happen.
Some members will ask whether this agenda is too ambitious for a small market. Others will worry that strengthening the secretariat will create bureaucracy instead of value, or that scaling back the Livingstone AGM will weaken the sense of community that ACI has built over the years. These are fair concerns.
The proposal here is deliberately modest. It looks at what EAZ already does with a permanent secretariat and national summits. It calls for a small, focused secretariat, not a large bureaucracy. It accepts that the AGM has value, but argues that it should become a celebration of what the association has achieved during the year, not the main product. And it rests on a simple principle: any organisation that can spend nearly K2.2 million on a single event can also afford to allocate part of that sum to research, knowledge, and the next generation of market professionals.
10. Closing thought
ACI Zambia sits on the front line between macro policy and real economy transmission. The central bank can design the best framework on paper, but without deep, ethical, and well-supported market practice, the signal dies in the pipes.
The choice in front of the association is straightforward. It can continue to be an exam platform with a good annual trip to Livingstone. Or it can take on the harder work of becoming a genuine market institution that supports practitioners, partners with the central bank, builds a pipeline of talent, and produces knowledge that outlives individual careers.
This vision will not implement itself. It needs champions.
For the current ACI council, this is an opportunity to be remembered as the term that turned subscriptions into a lasting institution. For bank chief executives and treasurers, it is a chance to insist that the cheques they sign each year buy more than one weekend away. For the Bank of Zambia, it is an opportunity to support an evolution that directly strengthens policy transmission without having to build a new structure inside the central bank. For development partners, it is a chance to back a domestic institution that will still be here long after individual projects have closed.
These changes also speak directly to the wider economic agenda. A stronger ACI does not only help banks. It supports the Bank of Zambia’s efforts to improve monetary policy transmission, the Ministry of Finance’s ambition to deepen the government securities market, and the objectives of IMF and World Bank programmes that call for deeper domestic capital markets. Development partners already support think tanks and policy bodies such as ZIPAR and EAZ. There is a strong case for similar, targeted support to an association that sits on the practical rails of the financial system.
As a former council member and as someone who has benefited from this community, I include myself in the responsibility. The choice now is whether we continue to fund a pattern that everyone privately knows is unsustainable, or whether we use the same resources to build a small but serious institution that serves the market, the regulators, and the country.
The money is already on the table. What remains is to decide what we want it to build.
Disclaimer
This article does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The author shares views for perspective and discussion only. Do not rely on them as a substitute for professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances. Always consult a qualified legal, financial, investment, or other professional adviser before making decisions based on this content.
Canary Compass and the author accept no liability for actions taken or not taken based on the information in this article.
About the author
Dean N. Onyambu is the Founder and Chief Editor of Canary Compass. His insights draw on experience across trading, fund leadership, governance, and economic policy.
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