The project kicked off at the Central Bank of Lesotho with one week dedicated to the planning sessions involving staff from the Supervision, and Information and Communication Technology Departments. The purpose of the planning session was to define roles and responsibilities of the project team, and to set up mechanisms for the collection of data, prior to the actual implementation of the project.

The BSA project is a system that will collect data electronically instead of using forms for off-site surveillance. The aim of the project is to assist bank supervision departments to acquire timely and accurate banking data from the commercial banks, at an initial stage, while it will apply across the entire financial sector at a later stage. The project has been developed for the purpose of enabling and supporting an improved bank supervision function in the East and Southern Africa Banking Supervisors Group/Southern Africa Development Community (ESAF/SADC) central banks. The BSA project was conceptualised in 2002 with the aim of assisting bank supervision departments of the central banks of ESAF/SADC region to acquire timely and accurate banking data from financial institutions under their respective supervision.

The Project has so far been implemented in Mozambique, Zambia, Angola, and in Malawi. The implementation process for Lesotho and Swaziland is being done simultaneously. The Project is to be completed by the end of 2006.