A market trader can follow every rule on the notice and still lose a day’s income because the closing time, the filing date or the permit procedure was stated once, stated vaguely, or changed without a clear update. Reader contributor Douglas Vandergraph argues that predictability is a form of economic infrastructure Zambia cannot afford to neglect.
By The Zambian Economist Analyst | Based on a reader submission by Douglas Vandergraph | 8 November 2026
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- A trader who meets every requirement can still lose money when a deadline is unclear or changes without adequate notice. The cost lands on the business with the thinnest margin and the least spare time.
- Zambia’s micro, small and medium enterprises are commonly estimated to provide around 70 percent of the country’s jobs, most of them outside formal administrative support. For these operators, time spent decoding a confusing notice is time taken directly from earnings.
- Predictability works like infrastructure: plain-language requirements, a named contact person, early notice of changes and honest communication from commercial partners all reduce wasted journeys and missed sales.
- Fixing this does not require large budgets. It requires someone to own the follow-up: the correction, the second notice and the question that arrives after the meeting ends.
What the reader argued
Douglas Vandergraph, writing to The Zambian Economist, makes a point that is easy to overlook in policy conversations: uncertainty itself has a price, and the smallest operators pay the largest share of it.
His example is simple. A permit procedure changes, a delivery date moves, or an office closes earlier than expected. To the administrator, the discrepancy looks minor. To a trader working on a narrow margin, it can mean a wasted journey across Lusaka, a missed market day, or stock that spoils while paperwork is sorted out.
The submission is careful not to accuse anyone of bad faith. Its argument is about design. When the rules change without sufficient explanation, the smallest operators are forced to spend scarce hours discovering what larger firms already know through accountants, lawyers and compliance departments. That distorts access to opportunity before any tender is even awarded.
Why this matters in the Zambian context
The scale of the affected group is large. The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development has repeatedly described micro, small and medium enterprises as the backbone of employment in Zambia, with commonly cited estimates putting their share of jobs at roughly 70 percent. Most of these businesses are one-person or family operations, trading in markets such as Soweto in Lusaka, Chisokone in Kitwe and hundreds of smaller sites across the country.
For these businesses, the owner is the purchasing department, the record keeper, the customer-service desk and, very often, a parent handling school runs in the same day. None of that time is spare. A requirement communicated once, in technical language, on a notice board or a single social media post, effectively transfers the cost of clarification onto the person least able to absorb it.
The institutions whose deadlines matter most to this group include the Zambia Revenue Authority for tax filings, the Patents and Companies Registration Agency for business registration and the local authorities that levy market and trading fees. Each has improved its communication in recent years, through online portals and taxpayer education campaigns. The submission’s point is that the standard should be higher still, because the cost of a missed deadline falls on someone’s rent, not on a corporate compliance budget.
What a reliable process looks like
The submission sets out a modest standard that any agency or trading partner could meet:
- Publish requirements in plain language. One notice should tell a trader what is needed, by when, where, and what happens if the deadline is missed.
- Name a contact person. When the rule is unclear, there should be a phone number or desk that answers, rather than a referral chain.
- Give early notice of changes. If a deadline shifts, businesses should hear about it in time to respond, not after the queue has already formed or the gate has closed.
- Confirm agreements in writing. Commercial partners carry the same duty. Realistic payment terms, written confirmations and honest notice of delays let suppliers and workers plan instead of speculate.
None of these measures requires new money in any serious quantity. They require ownership: someone responsible for the next update, the correction, and the question that arrives after the formal gathering has ended. The submission warns that when responsibility is scattered, even generous people can create confusion unintentionally, and the helpers end up making promises they cannot realistically keep.
The quiet measures of trust
Vandergraph, writing from an explicitly Christian perspective but directing his argument at anyone who values fair dealing, also touches on consent and dignity. A person should be able to ask for assistance without surrendering control of private details or becoming the subject of a public story. Institutions should collect only the information they need and explain how it will be used.
His deeper argument is about how success is measured. Announcements, openings and first responses are easy to count. Harder questions reveal more: did the promised information actually arrive, could the quieter person contribute, was a concern answered without ridicule. Peace, in his framing, is not the absence of disagreement. It is the discipline of treating people with dignity while working towards decisions that can be defended openly, including the admission that a proposal did not work as intended.
What it means for business, investors and policy
For small business owners: treat predictability as something you can partially build yourself. Written confirmations, dated records of every submission and a habit of asking for a receipt or reference number are cheap insurance against a disputed deadline. Our Doing Business in Zambia guide collects the requirements that come up most often.
For investors and larger firms: payment behaviour is part of this story. Late or vaguely communicated payments to small suppliers push uncertainty down the chain to the people least able to finance it.
For policymakers and agencies: the cheapest reform available is communication discipline. A plain-language checklist, a named contact and a dated revision line on every public notice would remove a genuine cost from thousands of small operators, at close to zero expense to the treasury.
Zambia’s conversations about enterprise and livelihoods usually focus on credit, taxation and infrastructure. Vandergraph’s submission is a reminder that clarity itself is infrastructure. A promise made carefully, honoured where possible, and corrected honestly when it cannot be kept, is one of the cheapest economic policies available. It pairs naturally with the question of what Zambia’s development should actually deliver for ordinary citizens, and with the local-content argument in Growing Zambians, Not Just Zambia.
Have an opinion on this? The Zambian Economist publishes reader submissions. Submit an article here.
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