Every interest-rate decision in Zambia carries a single number, but it is made by nine people. The Bank of Zambia’s Monetary Policy Committee, the body that sets the policy rate, is a nine-member committee — and knowing who sits on it is part of reading how its decisions are likely to fall.

The committee is chaired by Governor Denny Kalyalya, whose return to the central bank gave monetary policy a continuity it had previously lacked. Alongside him sits Deputy Governor Francis Chipimo, a long-serving economist at the heart of the Bank’s research and policy machinery. Together they anchor the institutional core of the committee, the permanent staff voice in every decision, and the line of accountability that runs from the rate announcement back to the Bank itself.

The MPC is not, however, a closed shop of central-bank insiders. It includes external members drawn from outside the institution, among them Professor Munacinga Simatele, an academic economist. External voices matter on a rate-setting body because they bring independent judgement and reduce the risk of groupthink, a design feature common to credible monetary committees across the region and beyond. The balance the Bank strikes — permanent insiders weighted against independent outsiders — is itself a signal of how seriously it takes the discipline of the decision.

The full composition is set out in the Bank’s February 2026 Monetary Policy Report, the same document that recorded the recent cut to 13.5%. For operators, the takeaway is simple: Zambia’s monetary decisions are made by a named, mixed committee of insiders and independents, not a single hand — and that structure is what gives the policy rate its credibility.