By Zambian Economist Analyst
Most Zambians now pay a government levy every time they send money on a phone. It is small enough per transaction that few people check it, and structured in a way that means how you send matters as much as how much.
This is what the mobile money levy actually costs, and the one habit that quietly multiplies it.
What the levy is
The Mobile Money Transaction Levy Act No. 25 of 2024 took effect in January 2025. It applies a charge on mobile money transfers based on the value of the transaction, across an eight-band sliding scale. Revised bands took effect on 4 January 2026.
Two things to be clear about:
- The levy is paid by the sender.
- It sits on top of the provider’s own fee, not instead of it. Your total cost is provider fee plus levy.
What it costs in practice
Using published operator schedules for a same-network send in 2026, the shape looks like this:
| Amount sent | Provider fee | Levy | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| K500 | K0.80 | K0.80 | K1.60 |
| K2,000 | K2.00 | K4.00 | K6.00 |
| K5,000 | K3.00 | K7.50 | K10.50 |
Figures are illustrative and vary by network, by whether the transfer is on-network or cross-network, and by whether you are sending, withdrawing or paying a merchant. Cross-network transfers cost materially more. Check your provider’s current schedule before assuming.
The habit that multiplies what you pay
This is the part almost nobody is told.
Because the levy applies per transaction rather than per shilling of value, splitting one payment into several smaller ones means paying the levy several times. Send K1,000 once and you pay the levy once. Send it as four transfers of K250 across the week and you pay it four times — on the same total value.
The Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants raised exactly this in its submission on the 2026 budget estimates, arguing the structure extracts more in fees from the lower-income user for the same total value transacted, because low-income users are precisely the ones who transact in small, frequent amounts.
Whatever view you take of that as policy, the practical implication for a household or a small trader is straightforward: batch your transfers where you can. Paying a supplier once a week instead of daily is now a cost decision, not just an admin one.
Why the levy exists
The 2026 national budget totals K253.1 billion, roughly 27.4% of GDP, of which 81.6% is to be financed domestically — tax revenue supplying 65.5% and non-tax revenue 16.8%.
That financing structure is the whole argument. Zambia is deliberately reducing reliance on borrowing after the debt restructuring, which means domestic revenue has to rise. Mobile money is one of the few parts of the economy that is large, growing and fully digitised, which makes it administratively attractive to tax.
The counter-argument is equally clear: mobile money is also the main channel through which unbanked Zambians access financial services at all, and taxing the channel risks pushing marginal users back to cash. The National Financial Inclusion Strategy and the levy are pulling in opposite directions at the margin.
What it means for a small business
Three things follow if you run a business that collects or disburses by mobile money:
- Price it in. If you take payment by mobile money, the levy is a real cost of collection. Businesses running on thin margins should know their effective cost per transaction, not just per sale.
- Consolidate disbursements. Paying ten casual workers individually every day costs meaningfully more in levy than paying weekly. The same applies to supplier payments.
- Check the channel. On-network, cross-network, wallet-to-bank and merchant payments are not charged alike. The cheapest route for a K5,000 payment is not always the obvious one.
The bottom line
The mobile money levy is not large per transaction, and arguing about it in isolation misses the point. What matters is that it is charged per event rather than per value — so frequency, not size, drives what you pay. That single feature determines whether it lands lightly or heavily on any given household or business.
The levy sits alongside a broader set of 2026 changes including electronic invoicing, a minimum alternative tax and a mandatory tax clearance certificate for licences and bank finance. We will cover each of those in this series.
For the wider fiscal picture see Zambia’s economy in 2026, and for how policy rates feed into borrowing costs see the Bank of Zambia policy rate and your loan.
Figures current as at July 2026 and illustrative only. Confirm current rates with your mobile money provider or the Zambia Revenue Authority before making financial decisions. This is general information, not financial advice.
Part of our Zambia Tax 2026 coverage.
