By The Zambian Economist Analyst

Government has called for coordinated action on electronic waste management, linking the safe handling of discarded devices to employment and business opportunities for young Zambians.

At the World E-Waste Day commemoration in Lusaka on 14 October, Green Economy and Environment Minister Gilbert Siame said the growing use of phones, computers, routers and other devices required effective collection, recycling and safe disposal systems. His speech was read by Forestry Director Freddie Siangulube, according to the event briefing supplied to The Zambian Economist.

The briefing identifies Airtel Zambia’s contribution as a donation of electronic waste to support practical skills development. It does not state the quantity or value of the donation.

What is Zambia’s e-waste youth employment project?

The Government is working with the International Labour Organisation under the Sustainable E-Waste Management for Youth Employment Project. The ILO’s project page confirms that the initiative operates in Central Province with funding from Japan.

In a July progress update, the ILO said it aimed to support 100 young women and men, including persons with disabilities, across Chibombo, Chisamba, Kabwe, Kapiri Mposhi and Mumbwa.

That figure describes the intended reach of the programme. It does not establish that 100 participants have secured jobs or started profitable businesses.

How can discarded electronics support livelihoods?

The opportunity extends from collecting old equipment to repairing devices, preparing them for reuse and recovering materials through recycling. The programme combines technical training with business management and financial literacy, according to the event briefing.

Siame said training needed to be complemented by access to employers, work-based learning, equipment, financing and markets. For participants hoping to establish enterprises, those conditions determine whether a skill becomes a source of income.

A donation can provide equipment for practical learning. An ongoing business also needs a dependable supply of discarded devices, the tools to handle them safely and customers willing to pay for repaired products or recovered materials.

The business test comes after training

For Zambia’s repair shops and prospective recycling businesses, the commercial question is whether revenue can cover collection, transport and safe processing costs. Access to finance matters, but so does a market for what an enterprise produces.

The programme’s results should therefore be assessed through paid placements, enterprises still trading after training and participants’ earnings. The quantity of e-waste safely collected and processed would provide a separate environmental measure.

No figures for jobs already created, participant earnings or business survival were provided in the commemoration briefing. These remain measures to track as implementation proceeds.

Why safe handling matters

The minister linked the initiative to protecting public health and the environment. The ILO also includes occupational safety in its programme approach. Expanding collection without safe handling and disposal would leave part of the problem unresolved.

The next test is whether Government, employers and cooperating partners can connect the training to sustained work and viable enterprises. Airtel’s reported contribution provides material for skills development; its employment effect will depend on what follows.

Source note: Ministerial remarks and Airtel donation details are drawn from the event briefing supplied to The Zambian Economist. Programme funding, target and geographical coverage are corroborated by the ILO. The briefing does not provide a verified employment outcome count.

More coverage

Related: Airtel’s K1.22bn Profit: A Signal of Zambia’s Digital Economy Taking Off.

Explore our Technology & Innovation coverage and Entrepreneurship & Startups reporting for more on digital businesses and enterprise development in Zambia.

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By The Zambian Economist Analyst

A message framed around results

In a message addressed to ICT professionals across the Government, Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane said their role goes beyond keeping systems running. He described them as people shaping how citizens experience public services, and he backed that with numbers.

“Today, 572 public services are online, more than 1.17 million customers have been served, over 6.66 million bills generated, and K9.78 billion collected,” the Minister said. “These figures are ultimately translating into shorter queues, fewer journeys, lower costs, faster services and greater transparency for our people.”

What the numbers mean

Each of those figures stands for something that used to require a trip to a government office. A passport application, a road tax payment or a council bill that can be settled online is one less day off work, one less bus fare and one less queue.

The revenue figure matters for a different reason. Payments made through a digital channel leave a record, go straight into government accounts and are harder to divert. For a Treasury trying to raise more domestic revenue without raising tax rates, closing leaks in collection is one of the cheaper options available.

The trend is also moving in the right direction. In July, Ministry of Finance Principal Accountant Daniel Mwewa reported that K8.8 billion had been collected through the Government Service Bus and the electronic payment gateway, with more than 400 services onboarded. The Minister’s latest figures point to roughly 170 more services and close to K1 billion in additional collections since then, although the two sets of numbers may not be measured on exactly the same basis.

ICT inside the Grow Zambia Agenda

Musokotwane placed digital government firmly inside the Government’s economic plan. Under the Grow Zambia Agenda, he said, ICT should raise productivity, strengthen revenue mobilisation, lower the cost of doing business, attract investment and bring the Government closer to every citizen.

He then set three standards for the work. “Every service digitized must make life easier, every system integrated must remove delay and duplication, and every payment secured must protect public resources.”

That is a useful test because it moves the measure of success away from the number of systems launched and towards what happens for the user. A service that is online but still requires a paper form, a signature and a visit to an office has not removed much cost.

The harder part: integration

The Minister’s emphasis on integration points to where much of the remaining gain lies. Citizens and businesses often deal with several agencies for one transaction, and each agency may hold its own records. When those systems talk to each other, a business registering, paying tax and applying for a licence does not have to submit the same documents three times.

Integration also supports revenue. When tax, licensing and payment systems share data, it becomes harder for activity to stay outside the tax net. That links directly to the Government’s revenue strategy, which relies heavily on better compliance rather than higher rates.

The challenge

Musokotwane closed with a direct appeal to the ICT community. “I challenge you: innovate boldly, integrate intelligently, and continue to serve relentlessly,” he said, adding that technology should become “the bridge to opportunity, dignity, growth, and prosperity for every Zambian.”

The next measure of progress will be how many local authorities and agencies come onto the shared platforms, and whether rural users, not only those in Lusaka and the Copperbelt, see the same reduction in queues and travel.

Related: Musokotwane Pivots Zambia Toward Export-Led Growth as Jobs and Investment Take Centre Stage.

Related: Zambia’s Revenue Strategy: The Four Pillars and the Gap They Have to Close.

Related: ZRA Smart Invoice: Why Your Supplier’s Compliance Is Now Your Problem.

Related: Airtel’s K1.22bn Profit: A Signal of Zambia’s Digital Economy Taking Off.

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For the six months to June 2026, Airtel’s revenue increased from K4.14 billion to K4.88 billion, while net profit rose from K674 million to K1.224 billion, an increase of about 82%. Earnings per share also increased, from K6.48 to K11.77.

The key issue is that profit grew substantially faster than revenue, pointing to stronger operating efficiency and monetisation rather than growth for its own sake.

The drivers include a growing customer base, rising data consumption, Airtel Money, digital financial services and continued network investment, including a reported US$107 million nationwide network expansion.

From an economic perspective, Airtel demonstrates how investment in digital infrastructure can generate scale, productivity, profits and shareholder wealth.

The broader lesson for Zambia is clear. Stabilisation must translate into productive private-sector investment, stronger companies, employment, tax revenues and, ultimately, higher household incomes.

Reporting and analysis by Kelvin Chisanga for The Zambian Economist.

About the author: Kelvin Chisanga is a Zambian economist and public policy analyst with over 15 years of multidisciplinary experience spanning ICT, mining, insurance, hospitality and media. He writes and comments regularly on monetary policy, macroeconomic stability and Zambia’s development agenda, with a particular focus on translating economic stabilisation into production, investment and improved household incomes.

Related: Musokotwane to Government ICT Staff: 572 Services Online, K9.78 Billion Collected, Now Build the Digital State.

Related coverage: Government, Airtel back e-waste skills drive for young Zambians.

By Kelvin Chisanga

Not simply ZedMobile versus Vodacom

The debate around Zambia’s fourth telecom operator has usually been framed as a choice between ZedMobile and Vodacom. That framing misses the point. The real issue is the economic opportunity Zambia may have lost through delayed and restrictive market entry, regardless of which operator eventually filled the fourth slot.

A regional operator held to broadband only

Vodacom had sought to establish itself in Zambia much earlier, and it brought the strength of a major regional telecommunications group: capital, technology, technical expertise, infrastructure experience and access to a broader African market. Its entry into Zambia, however, was ultimately limited to broadband services rather than a full mobile voice licence.

Could Zambia have accommodated both models?

Years later, Zambia licensed ZedMobile as the fourth mobile network operator. Supporting a Zambian-owned operator was strategically important. But the bigger question is whether Zambia could have accommodated both models at once: an international operator bringing capital and technology, alongside a strong, locally owned competitor.

Why competition matters

Competition matters because it can drive lower prices, better service, wider network coverage and faster technological investment. A market with only one credible new entrant, rather than two competing for the same customers, generally moves more slowly on all four fronts.

The policy lesson: stop forcing false choices

The lesson for policymakers is straightforward. Zambia should not create artificial choices between foreign investment and local ownership. The country needs both kinds of investment interest, and a regulatory approach that treats them as substitutes rather than complements narrows the market unnecessarily.

Beyond counting subscribers

Zambia’s telecommunications policy must now move beyond counting mobile subscribers. The objective should be affordable broadband, 5G, digital financial services, rural connectivity and a competitive digital economy that lowers the cost of doing business and raises productivity.

The real missed opportunity

The real missed opportunity may not have been choosing ZedMobile over Vodacom. It may have been taking too long to create meaningful fourth-player competition in the first place.

Related reading: Mobile Money Has Expanded Financial Inclusion, But What Has It Changed for Users?, Zambia Mobile Money Levy 2026: What It Actually Costs You and Strong Grounds for Take-Off: Zambia Is Entering a Sweet Spot of Economic Positivity.

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The meeting, held at Neelkanth Sarovar Premiere, brought together TopStar board members and other stakeholders to assess the public signal distributor’s operations and priorities.

Ministry of Information and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana said the discussions covered key operational milestones, emerging broadcasting-industry challenges and regulatory strategies intended to improve services for households across Zambia.

The statement did not identify the specific milestones reviewed or provide details of the regulatory measures discussed.

Coverage, affordability and signal distribution

Mr Kawana said the Ministry remained committed to ensuring that Zambia’s public signal distributor operated efficiently.

He said digital integration and accessible media platforms were important to building a more connected and informed society. The Ministry’s priorities include supporting innovations that expand signal coverage and make high-quality digital television content more affordable.

According to Mr Kawana, improved broadcasting infrastructure can help narrow the information gap between the Government and citizens by making media services available to more households.

Public-private partnerships central to next phase

The Ministry plans to continue promoting public-private partnerships as part of efforts to strengthen Zambia’s national broadcasting infrastructure.

Mr Kawana said the collective insights gathered during the board meeting would guide the next stage of work towards a more transparent, connected and informed Zambia.

No investment value, new coverage target or implementation timetable was announced in the statement.

GDP growth hit 7.7% in Q1 2026, and agriculture was not the only story. Information, communication and entertainment expanded at double-digit rates, faster than the harvest that made the headlines.

The Quarter That Changed the Story

Zambia’s GDP growth accelerated to 7.7% in the first quarter of 2026, up sharply from 2.1% in the final quarter of 2025, an over one-year high. Above-average rainfall drove a strong agricultural rebound, the usual headline explanation. Less noticed: information and communication, alongside entertainment and recreation, expanded at double-digit rates over the same period, growing faster than agriculture itself.

What Is Actually in That Number

Zambia’s information and communication sector covers mobile networks, internet service providers, fintech platforms and the mobile money infrastructure that now underpins everyday transactions from market trading to utility bill payments. Entertainment and recreation captures the more visible side of the same shift: streaming, gaming, events and the creator-driven content economy that has grown alongside smartphone penetration and cheaper data.

Retail Demand Is Rising Too

Rebounding retail sales amid low inflation signalled robust domestic demand over the same period, while goods exports rose strongly. Taken together, the Q1 2026 numbers describe an economy where growth is no longer coming from a single source. Agriculture supplied the scale, but technology and consumer-facing digital services supplied a disproportionate share of the acceleration.

Business Implications

For telecoms, fintech and media businesses, the sectoral data confirms what usage trends already suggested: digital services are one of the fastest-growing parts of the Zambian economy, not a peripheral one. That argues for treating connectivity infrastructure and digital payments as core economic policy, not a technology side issue.

Investor Implications

A one-quarter acceleration built partly on rainfall is not, on its own, evidence of a structural shift. But a technology and entertainment sector growing in double digits alongside agriculture suggests Zambia’s digital economy has reached a scale where it now visibly moves the national growth number, not just individual company results.

Key Takeaways

• Zambia’s GDP growth accelerated to 7.7% in Q1 2026, from 2.1% in Q4 2025.
• Information and communication, and entertainment and recreation, both grew at double-digit rates.
• Retail sales and goods exports also strengthened, pointing to broader domestic demand.

Related reading: Zambia’s 7.7% GDP Growth: Why It Doesn’t Feel Like It and Zambia Mobile Money Levy 2026: What It Actually Costs You

Related: Mobile Money Has Expanded Financial Inclusion, But What Has It Changed for Users?

Since 1 January 2026, the Zambia Revenue Authority only accepts input VAT claims supported by receipts generated through Smart Invoice. An invoice without a Mark ID and QR code is no longer a document you can claim against.

That single change did something most businesses have not fully absorbed: it made your supplier’s compliance into your cash flow problem.

What Smart Invoice is

Smart Invoice is the ZRA’s mandatory electronic invoicing platform, introduced under the Value Added Tax (Electronic Invoicing System) Regulations, Statutory Instrument No. 58 of 2023. It replaces the older Electronic Fiscal Devices, the physical till machines, with a software system that transmits transaction data to the ZRA in real time.

It was developed through south-south cooperation with Rwanda, drawing on that country’s e-invoicing programme.

Every compliant invoice carries a unique Mark ID and a QR code. Those two identifiers are the validity stamp. A scanned copy, a handwritten receipt or a Word document does not qualify, however genuine the underlying transaction.

Why the January change matters more than the 2024 mandate

The 2024 mandate told you to issue invoices a particular way. The 2026 change tells you which invoices you can claim.

Work through what that means. You buy K100,000 of stock from a supplier who is VAT-registered but has not properly adopted Smart Invoice. They give you a receipt. You pay, including VAT. When you file, that VAT is not claimable, because the receipt carries no Mark ID.

You have absorbed a cost created by somebody else’s non-compliance, and you will probably only discover it at filing.

Three consequences follow:

• Supplier compliance is now a procurement criterion. Alongside price, quality and payment terms, add: can they issue a valid Smart Invoice receipt?
• Verify at the point of purchase, not at filing. Check the Mark ID and QR code are present when you receive the document. A month later you have no leverage.
• Informal suppliers just became more expensive. The cheaper price from an unregistered vendor may not be cheaper once irrecoverable VAT is priced in.

Which version you need

The ZRA offers four routes, and businesses regularly pick the wrong one:

1. Online. Runs in a browser, nothing to install. Suits service providers issuing a handful of invoices a month.
2. Desktop. Installed software, for businesses invoicing regularly from a fixed location.
3. Mobile. For traders operating away from a desk.
4. VSDC. A Virtual Sales Data Controller for businesses running ERP or accounting software that needs to integrate directly. Requires ZRA certification and technical setup.

The common mistake is a growing business staying on Online long past the point where transaction volume justifies integration, then spending staff hours on manual entry that an integration would have eliminated.

The ZRA publishes monthly Smart Invoice bulletins and updates item classification codes; integration support is available through the project team at the Authority.

Where this sits in a bigger shift

Smart Invoice is not an isolated system. It is one component of a deliberate move toward real-time, data-driven tax administration. In July 2026 the ZRA signed a research agreement with the International Centre for Tax and Development aimed at building exactly that capability, with the Commissioner General framing the goal as a fully data-driven authority able to handle the complexities of a digital economy.

Read alongside the mobile money levy and mandatory tax clearance requirements, the direction is unmistakable: Zambia is taxing the digital trail rather than chasing the paper one. The 2026 budget is 81.6% domestically financed, and this is the machinery that makes that arithmetic work.

What to do this week

1. Confirm you are issuing through Smart Invoice and that your receipts carry a Mark ID and QR code.
2. Audit your top ten suppliers by spend. Are their receipts claimable?
3. Check whether your solution type still fits your volume.
4. Brief whoever receives deliveries. The verification has to happen at the counter, not in the accountant’s office three weeks later.

For related 2026 changes see what the mobile money levy actually costs, and for the wider fiscal picture, Zambia’s economy in 2026.

Figures and dates current as at July 2026. This is general information, not tax advice, confirm your obligations with the ZRA or a registered tax practitioner.

Part of our Zambia Tax 2026 coverage.

Related: Zambia has opened consultations on the 2027-2031 Medium-Term Revenue Strategy, covering tax predictability, compliance and domestic development financing.

Related: Musokotwane to Government ICT Staff: 572 Services Online, K9.78 Billion Collected, Now Build the Digital State.

Since stepping into the role, Enock has helped steer the technical direction of a Zambian hosting platform built with developers in mind. His philosophy is simple: technology should serve people first.

“Being a tech founder fills my heart with immense joy. Witnessing my creation positively impact people’s lives is what drives me every day. My ultimate aim is to craft tools and services that provide a solid foundation for developers, empowering them to create innovations that will truly change the world.”

Looking back on 2025, he describes it as a defining year for himself and his team, shaped by one core lesson:

“The past few years have taught me a valuable lesson: persistence is key, and it consistently yields remarkable results. However, amidst the hustle, I’ve come to realize that prioritizing happiness over work is paramount.”

It’s a mindset that grounds his leadership at Melo Hosts: building with purpose, without losing sight of what matters.

“For me, true happiness stems from the ability to enhance the lives of others. Your source of happiness may differ, but once you discover it, its profound impact will become undeniable.”

As Melo Hosts continues to grow, Enock Zulu’s blend of technical drive and people-first thinking is helping shape what a homegrown Zambian hosting company can look like.

About Melo Hosts
Melo Hosts provides reliable, scalable web infrastructure for businesses of every size, from startups to enterprises running mission-critical applications.

Services:
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Built for uptime and backed by responsive support, Melo Hosts powers your online presence.

Learn more: www.melohosts.com

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Related on The Zambian Economist: How Zambian businesses should plan for the election period · Zambia’s economy in 2026: a business guide

Source: This profile is based on The Zambian Economist’s own interview with Enock Zulu.

Correction, 22 October 2026: The photograph caption previously stated that Enock Zulu had served as Chief Technical Officer since 2024. The correct year is 2019.