Business
A handful of outsourcing firms — led by Blackstone-owned VFS Global — now run the front desk of global migration. Their profits have quadrupled on fees and add-ons that African travellers, Zambians among them, pay whether or not they are ever let in, while the EU raised visa fees 12.5% despite high African rejection rates.
Business
At a US anniversary event in Lusaka, Secretary to the Cabinet Patrick Kangwa thanked Washington for a five-year, $1.5 billion health package for HIV, TB and malaria; Information PS Thabo Kawana then clarified the deal is not yet signed. The correction is small, but with US funds underwriting core disease programmes through PEPFAR, the distinction between a welcome and a signature matters.
Technology
The African fintechs that last design for the basic phone, the thin data bundle and the cash that people already use — not a premium market that has not arrived. With WhatsApp near-universal and lenders like Optasia clearing $30m a day in tiny loans, the lesson lands on Zambia’s USSD-based mobile-money market more usefully than any Silicon Valley template.
Africa
A 31-member committee of South Africa’s parliament has opened the first impeachment inquiry into a sitting president, examining whether Cyril Ramaphosa should be removed over the 2020 Phala Phala theft. Convened on a Constitutional Court order, the inquiry will run for months — and Zambia, a major trading partner, is watching the rand and the region.
Business
The New Congress Party, led by Peter Chanda, has endorsed President Hakainde Hichilema for Zambia’s 13 August election, joining a run of small parties backing the incumbent. The declarations matter in a system where the presidency is won only with more than half the vote — a contrast the governing UPND wants voters to see.
Business
A Lusaka High Court petition by activist Isaac Mwanza and a civil-society consortium asks the court to disqualify more than 100 independent candidates for the 13 August election, arguing Article 51 bars party members from standing as independents. Named candidates include Garry Nkombo and Miles Sampa. No hearing date has been set.
Business
Zambia's Constitutional Court will hear on 17 June a petition seeking to bar the Socialist Party ticket of Fred M'membe and running mate Dolika Banda from the 13 August ballot, over whether Banda holds a Grade 12 certificate or a proven equivalent. A full bench is listed to determine the matter. The Socialist Party disputes the claim.
Africa
Three football rule changes arrive for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada: an eight-second limit on goalkeepers holding the ball, red cards for players who cover the mouth, and broader VAR review. The Laws are set by the IFAB and applied by FIFA — and they reach Zambian football over time.
Business
The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism prices the carbon embedded in selected imports. Zambia's hydro-heavy grid is a low-carbon advantage over coal-reliant rivals — but drought-driven load-shedding and diesel back-up erode it, and the live question for copper is scope expansion rather than present coverage.
Africa
Nigerian police have warned against reprisal attacks on South Africans after weeks of anti-migrant protests in South Africa, the BBC reported on 1 June 2026. For Zambia and the wider continent, the episode raises the safety of African migrants and the SADC free-movement agenda.
Africa
The United States will cut by more than half its embassies in Africa that process visas, the Associated Press reported on 1 June 2026. Fewer processing points mean longer journeys and waits for students, businesses, families and the diaspora — Zambians among them.
Technology
Anthropic, the US company behind the Claude assistant, plans a public share sale this year at a valuation approaching $1 trillion. For Zambia and Africa, the story is about access — the capital, infrastructure and policy terms behind a dependence on foreign frontier-AI providers.
Technology
Alphabet said it will sell about $80bn in stock to fund artificial-intelligence plans, including a $10bn slice to Berkshire Hathaway. For Zambia the read is physical: data centres are copper-intensive, and a build-out at this scale feeds the long-run copper-demand thesis behind the mining strategy.
Business
Zambia faces a dual squeeze: rising debt service and falling donor health funding. Health taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks offer a double dividend — more domestic revenue and fewer non-communicable diseases — but the design choices and enforcement decide how much of the promise lands.
Africa
Former Information Minister Chishimba Kambwili pleaded guilty before the Lusaka Magistrates' Court to departing Zambia without passing through immigration, a charge tied to a 2024 Zimbabwe crossing. The plea change sends the matter to sentencing on 4 June 2026.
Africa
A 36-year-old Chingola man, Kelvin Musebo, died in a tunnel collapse at the OB 13 KCM dumpsite while allegedly engaged in illegal mining, the police said. Separately, the Ministry of Mines says the state will no longer fund rescues of people engaged in illegal mining on the Copperbelt.
Business
Velos Mining Limited is weighing a copper processing plant in the Bunda Bunda chiefdom of Rufunsa District. The Bunda Bunda Royal Establishment has welcomed the prospect, and the plan tests Zambia’s push to add value to copper closer to source. The investment remains at a consideration stage.
Business
President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND administration have pledged to recruit more than 40,000 additional health workers in a second term if re-elected on 13 August — a promise that turns on the public-sector wage bill.
Business
Garry Nkombo, the former Mazabuka Central MP now standing as an independent, has been charged with two counts of assault after an altercation during UPND nominations, Southern Province police said. The case lands weeks into the 13 August election campaign.
Technology
A data centre is a building full of servers that store and process digital information. Here is why Zambia wants a national one, and what reliable power and connectivity it would need.
Business
Candidate withdrawals have become an election-year talking point in Zambia. Here is how withdrawal works under the rules the ECZ administers, and why it has become an issue before 13 August.
Business
A Eurobond buyback is when a government repurchases its dollar bonds before they mature. Here is how Zambia's $1.36bn tender works and what it means for the economy.
Business
Gold has hit records above $5,500 an ounce as war and fiscal risk drive safe-haven demand. For Zambia, building gold reserves and a young gold-mining sector, it is an opening as much as a warning.
Africa
Illegal mining is collapsing Johannesburg into sinkholes, costing the city billions. For Zambia's Copperbelt, with its own abandoned shafts and informal miners, it is a warning.
Africa
Zambia's Drug Enforcement Commission seized cannabis and codeine syrup hidden in the fuel tank of a Copperbelt-bound bus in Kabwe and arrested five people, in its latest trafficking interception.
Africa
Nearly a year after it began in Mpulungu, Zambia's cholera outbreak is contained but persistent, centred on Northern Province. The response leans on oral vaccine and clean water.
Business
The $600m African Development Bank loan financing Zambia's bond buyback is tied to a 15-year National Grid Resilience Program, coordinated by GreenCo and aimed at ending load-shedding.
Business
The Iran war has pushed Brent crude up more than 55% and choked the Strait of Hormuz. For fuel-importing Zambia, the global oil shock tests the kwacha, inflation and a fragile recovery.
Africa
Guinea mines more bauxite than anywhere on earth yet ranks 179th on the Human Development Index. For copper-dependent Zambia, the resource-curse warning is about local linkages.
Business
Zambia's IBA denied banning campaign songs but ordered Hot FM to stop airing an inflammatory track and issued election content guidance ahead of the 13 August general election.
Africa
Zambia's malaria cases fell to an estimated 9.5 million in 2024 from 11.5 million in 2023, with deaths down 40%, according to Ministry of Health data — even as the country battles a separate cholera outbreak.
Technology
Zambia cancelled RightsCon 2026 days before it opened in Lusaka. Host Access Now blamed Chinese pressure over Taiwanese delegates; rights groups warn of shrinking civic space before the August election.
Business
Zambia's Energy Regulation Board cut diesel, kerosene and jet A-1 prices for June 2026 while holding petrol at K27.15 a litre, citing cheaper imports and a stronger kwacha.
Africa
Paramount Chief Mpezeni IV, the Ngoni traditional ruler of Zambia's Eastern Province, has died at 75 after a 44-year reign. Government has begun engaging the Royal Establishment on succession.
Business
Zambia opened a cash tender offer for its $1.36bn 2053 Eurobond, part-financed by a $600m African Development Bank loan tied to a 15-year grid plan.