Zambian business, the macro economy, trade and investment — what is moving and why it matters.
The Bank of Zambia is pushing lenders to tighten credit checks after its April 2026 Financial Stability Report found loan delinquency among civil servants at 16.2%, well above the 10% prudential threshold, blaming over-indebtedness and borrowers stacking loans across institutions.
The governing UPND Alliance has grown to 15 parties after admitting five more, chairperson Charles Milupi announced, framing the expansion as confidence in President Hakainde Hichilema as the opposition stays fragmented ahead of the 13 August general election.
Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia are piloting instant cross-border payments over PAPSS that settle directly in local currencies — cedi, franc and kwacha — without routing through the US dollar, in a bid to cut the cost of intra-African trade.
A year after Edgar Lungu died in South Africa, President Hakainde Hichilema has renewed his call for the former president to be buried in Zambia with full military honours, as the family’s legal fight to bury him privately in Johannesburg continues.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has urged citizens to verify information before sharing it, citing rising misinformation ahead of the 13 August general election. The commission positioned itself as the authoritative source for the voter roll, the process and results.
President Hakainde Hichilema has reaffirmed a commitment to local-content regulations in mining, framing them as the route to Zambians benefiting directly from the country's copper and other resources. State House tied the rules to responsible resource use and economic growth.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has suspended all political campaigns in Mazabuka Central Constituency until further notice, citing an unstable security situation and condemning violence in the Kabwe and Chawama campaigns ahead of the 13 August general election.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has ordered independent candidates assigned the Candle campaign symbol to choose replacements by 10 June 2026, after finding it resembled a registered party symbol. Candidates who miss the deadline will have a symbol allocated under Regulation 8(6). The directive affects multiple constituencies ahead of the 13 August general elections.
The Zambian kwacha is trading in the K17 bracket against the US dollar for the first time since 2023, driven by copper earnings, a bumper harvest, and debt reform.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The World Health Organization reported 906 suspected Ebola cases and 223 suspected deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an escalation of the Bundibugyo outbreak now pressing on Zambia's northern border and Copperbelt cross-border trade.
China's zero-tariff policy now covers every African country with diplomatic ties to Beijing, including Zambia. For Lusaka the prize lies not in copper, which already entered duty-free, but in gemstones, agriculture and processed goods.
President Hakainde Hichilema has put private-sector revenue at the centre of Zambia's growth pitch, pointing to Barrick's Lumwana copper mine and its contribution to the national purse as the economy emerges from debt restructuring.
South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein has reserved judgement in the dispute over Edgar Lungu's remains, weighing the family's wish for a private burial against Zambia's claim to a state funeral.
Candidate withdrawals, factional realignments and disqualification petitions are reshaping Zambia's National Assembly contest ahead of the 13 August 2026 general election, testing the Electoral Commission of Zambia's nomination rules.
The 14-candidate Zambian presidential ballot is the most fragmented field of the constitutional 50%+1 era. The arithmetic of that fragmentation is the single most important variable in whether 13 August produces an outright winner or a run-off.
Brent crude is back above $99 a barrel as the Strait of Hormuz disruption deepens — the IEA calls it the biggest supply shock in oil history. Zambia's pump-price feedthrough lands in 2-6 weeks via the ERB cost-plus formula.
LME copper spot reached $13,565.69 a tonne on 26 May and held above $13,500 through the week. US tariff-driven inventory pull and Middle East supply concerns continue to bid the metal, even as Q1 2026 Zambian output came in 4.27% below year-ago levels.
Zambia produced 208,993 tonnes of copper in Q1 2026, down 4.27% on Q1 2025. Large-scale mines posted modest gains; small-scale operations dragged the headline. The 3-million-tonne 2031 target now requires a sustained 23% annual growth rate from the 2025 base.
President Hakainde Hichilema received Letters of Credence from envoys representing Tanzania, Indonesia, Greece, Gabon, Norway and Mexico on Tuesday, framing Zambia as a destination for equal-terms trade and investment after the close of its debt restructuring.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has released a constituency-level campaign timetable for the 13 August general election, running 23 May to 12 August, with the stated aim of giving all 14 presidential candidates equal access.
Brent crude has fallen on mixed signals around a possible US-Iran peace deal, dragging the imported-fuel cost line in Zambia's pricing model lower and easing pressure on the Energy Regulation Board ahead of its next monthly review.
Moody's has raised its outlook on South Africa's sovereign rating to positive while keeping the rating in sub-investment grade — a move that loosens regional bond spreads and may help Zambia's ongoing restructuring story at the margin.
Political violence and online intimidation are deterring women from contesting and campaigning in Zambia's 2026 election cycle, the Non-Governmental Gender Organisations Coordinating Council said on Monday — and the coalition is calling on the ECZ, the Zambia Police Service and the political parties to act before nomination momentum is lost.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has commended electoral officers and candidates in Muchinga Province for what it called peaceful and orderly nomination filings, setting it up as a benchmark for the remaining provinces ahead of the 13 August general election.
President Hakainde Hichilema has exercised the constitutional prerogative of mercy on more than 1,500 inmates to mark Africa Freedom Day, with non-violent offenders and those nearing the end of their sentences making up the bulk of the release.
The US Federal Reserve held its policy rate at 3.5–3.75% for a third straight meeting in April 2026 on an 8-4 vote, and markets now see a real chance the next move is a hike rather than a cut as an energy shock revives inflation. Gold has surged past $4,700, with banks forecasting $5,000 or more. For frontier borrowers such as Zambia, higher-for-longer US rates raise the cost of external debt — but a record copper price and a strong kwacha are cushioning the squeeze.
The Bank of Zambia's Currency Directives, 2025 require that all domestic transactions in Zambia are settled in kwacha rather than US dollars, even where a contract is priced in a foreign currency. Issued under the Bank of Zambia Act, 2022 and effective from 26 December 2025, the rule converts foreign-currency contracts at the market rate, exempts banking, securities, insurance and specified mining flows, and carries penalties of up to 2,500 penalty units or two years' imprisonment. This explainer sets out how the kwacha-only rule works and who it affects.
Zambian consumer inflation fell to 7.5% year-on-year in February 2026, its lowest since June 2018 and the first reading inside the Bank of Zambia's 6-8% target band since April 2019. A kwacha that has strengthened around 30% against the dollar and a maize harvest that more than doubled to 3.7 million tonnes pulled food and import prices down. Lower inflation eases the cost of living and gives the central bank room on its 14% policy rate, though an oil-price shock remains the main risk to the outlook.
Zambia's copper output is forecast to pass one million tonnes in 2026, with Fitch Solutions projecting a 10% rise as expansion projects at Barrick's Lumwana, Konkola Copper Mines, Mopani and Lubambe add around 400,000 tonnes a year at full ramp-up. The milestone underpins GDP growth near 6.4%, lifts mineral royalties and supports the kwacha, and marks a step toward the government's stated target of three million tonnes by 2031. Power supply remains the central risk to the forecast.
Copper hit a record above $13,000 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange in 2026, with a record $6.69 a pound on the US Comex on 13 May, as buyers rushed to import metal ahead of further US Section 232 tariffs. For Zambia, where copper is the dominant export, the rally lifts mineral royalties, strengthens the kwacha and eases debt servicing — though most Zambian exports are exempt from the duty driving the price. A US Commerce Department review on refined-copper tariffs is due by 30 June 2026.
Zambia's five-day presidential nomination window closes on 22 May 2026 at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre, with President Hakainde Hichilema filing for the UPND alongside opposition leaders Harry Kalaba, Fred M'membe, Brian Mundubile and Makebi Zulu. The Electoral Commission of Zambia validates each nomination against Article 100 of the Constitution before publishing the final candidate list. The next milestone is the opening of the campaign period ahead of the 13 August general election.
Once the Electoral Commission declares a presidential winner, the result is not automatically final. Under Article 101 of the Constitution, it can be challenged — but only by petition to the Constitutional Court, filed within seven days of the declaration, and the court must hear and decide it within fourteen. The compressed timeline has been the most contested feature of Zambian election law since 2016. Here is how the petition route works and why the clock matters so much.
The campaign for 13 August is governed by more than goodwill. Zambia's Electoral Code of Conduct is a binding legal instrument under the Electoral Process Act that sets the rules of the contest — barring violence and intimidation, hate speech, vote-buying and the abuse of state resources, while guaranteeing equal access to public media. The Electoral Commission of Zambia enforces it through conflict-management committees. Here is what the Code covers and what happens when it is broken.
Zambia does not elect a president on a simple plurality. Under the Constitution, a candidate must win more than 50% of all valid votes cast — the 50%-plus-one rule. If no candidate clears that bar on 13 August, the top two go to a run-off within 37 days. The rule, introduced in the 2016 constitutional amendments, reshaped Zambian presidential politics. Here is how the threshold, the run-off and the timelines actually work.
To stand for president in Zambia, a candidate cannot rely on a single regional base. The Constitution requires the nomination to be supported by registered voters from each of the country's ten provinces — a deliberate test of national reach. The Electoral Commission of Zambia ran provincial pre-processing of presidential supporters from 11 to 15 May 2026 to verify those backers before nominations. Here is how the rule works and why it exists.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia certified the Register of Voters on 4 May 2026 — the formal legal step that fixes the list of who is eligible to vote in the 13 August general election. Certification closes the register to further changes and becomes the single source of truth used at every polling station. It is one of the quieter milestones in the electoral calendar, and one of the most consequential: no name on the certified roll, no vote.
The United States has charged seven Chinese executives and four firms with running an illegal shipping-container cartel. The case is about price-fixing in the boxes that move global trade. For landlocked Zambia, freight is a tax on everything imported — fuel, machinery, medicines, consumer goods — and anything that distorts the cost of containers and shipping reaches the Zambian shelf price. Here is why a US antitrust case matters in Lusaka.
Zambia's current IMF programme is winding toward its end, and Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa says the government is confident of clinching a successor arrangement after the 13 August general election. The framing is deliberate: a new programme is being lined up for after the vote, not before it. For a country still consolidating a post-default fiscal path, the continuity of an IMF anchor is the variable markets and lenders are watching most closely.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia has extended the nomination period for National Assembly, mayoral and council-chairperson candidates ahead of the 13 August general election. The presidential window closed on schedule; this extension covers the down-ballot races. The move buys parties more time to finalise adoptions, but it also tightens the calendar that follows — objections, the courts and the gazette all have to happen before campaigning proper begins.
The mobile-money agent — the person at the kiosk who turns cash into digital value and back — is the most important node in Zambia's financial system. A new agent training manual from the Payments Association of Zambia marks a shift: the agent network is being treated as a profession with standards, not an informal patchwork. The move matters because agents are where financial inclusion, fraud risk and consumer trust all meet.
Two forces dominate global markets: a bond reckoning, as investors demand higher yields to hold government debt, and an AI investment mania driving a capital-spending boom. They pull in opposite directions. The resolution sets the global cost of capital — and for a frontier borrower like Zambia, the global cost of capital is the gravity that sets domestic borrowing rates. Here is the tension, decoded, and why it reaches Lusaka.
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Zambia now publishes daily GRZ bond secondary-market trade summary reports. They are dry documents. They are also one of the clearest windows into the cost of money in Zambia: where government bond yields sit, how much trading is happening, and what investors think of the fiscal path. Here is how to read the secondary market, and why its liquidity matters far beyond the trading desk.
The United Nations has cut its 2026 global growth forecast, citing the Middle East crisis and elevated oil prices as the main drags. For Zambia, a downgraded world outlook is not an abstraction. It transmits directly through three channels: copper demand and price, the kwacha exchange rate, and the fuel-import bill that feeds domestic inflation. The size of each channel decides how much a weaker world costs Lusaka.
South Africa has overtaken Spain to become the world's leading citrus exporter, a milestone built on two decades of variety investment, cold-chain logistics and market-access diplomacy. For Zambia — where agriculture is the second-largest employer but exports stay narrow — the South African route is the most relevant playbook on the continent. The lesson is not the fruit. It is the system behind it.
The Twelfth National Assembly is in its closing sittings before Zambia's 13 August general election dissolves it. A short list of bills is now in active progress through committee and second reading — the Public Gatherings Bill, the supplementary budget, electoral reform amendments and statutory instruments tied to the next fiscal year. What passes before August matters; what stalls waits for the Thirteenth Assembly that the election produces.
The Electoral Commission of Zambia opened the presidential nomination window for the 13 August 2026 general election on 18 May. The process runs five working days. The legal framework sits in the Constitution and the Electoral Process Act, the document checklist is specific and unforgiving, and what happens after a candidate is filed is a defined sequence of objection, adjudication and final acceptance.
From 24 June 2026, Zambian commercial banks stop processing cheques. The Bank of Zambia phase-out is final, the rationale is sound — cheques are the slowest, most fraud-prone payment rail in the system — and the practical question for businesses is what to use instead. The answer is a three-rail mix: real-time gross settlement (RTGS) for large payments, the Zambia Electronic Funds Transfer (ZEFT) system for routine batched flows, and mobile money for everything small.
Ethiopia spent two decades as Africa's most state-owned major economy. The government is now unwinding the telecoms monopoly, opening the banking sector to foreign players and standing up a proper capital market for the first time. African Business calls it a 'hidden tech awakening'. For Zambia and the Lusaka Securities Exchange, the lesson is in the sequencing — what Ethiopia is doing now is what Zambian markets pulled off a generation earlier, and the reverse-engineering opportunities are real.
Agentic AI — software that can plan and take multi-step actions on a shopper's behalf — is the next platform shift in retail, according to a new McKinsey and ICSC report carried by African Business. The headline number is $5 trillion in unlocked global retail revenue by 2030. Zambian retailers, mostly mid-sized and offline-dominant, are not the target audience for that scenario. They are the next-door audience: the businesses agentic AI will reach through Africa's mobile-money rails before the average shop owner has read a slide deck.
Afreximbank's 33rd Annual Meetings open in Alamein from 21 to 24 June 2026 under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's patronage, with more than 3,000 delegates expected. For Zambia — a long-standing member state and one of the bank's busiest trade-finance counterparties — the meetings matter for AfCFTA payments, the Lobito Corridor pipeline and the next phase of intra-African settlement.
LUSAKA — The Bank of Zambia is closing the cheque system. Circular 08/2024 sets 24 June 2026 as the last day customers can deposit a cheque at any commercial bank.
LUSAKA — Brent crude is back above $110 a barrel after Donald Trump's latest warning to Iran and that is the variable Zambian fuel prices and the kwacha will struggle to absorb.
LUSAKA — The latest round of US–South Africa critical-minerals talks is a fresh entry on a board where Zambia is already a named player through the trilateral MoU and the Lobito Corridor.
LUSAKA — The Electoral Commission of Zambia opens a five-day presidential nomination window today, the formal start of the campaign period for general elections set for 13 August.
Bank of Zambia Governor Denny Kalyalya says the central bank does not forecast the exchange rate and that whether the kwacha keeps appreciating depends on underlying export earnings, fiscal discipline and investor sentiment.
A Lusaka High Court witness has told the M'membe firearm trial that a search of the Socialist Party president's vehicle, after a 2023 by-election fracas in Serenje, uncovered a CZ97B pistol, 35 rounds of ammunition, a metal axe, a catapult and pepper spray.
Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane says the UPND government has signed 19 Public-Private Partnership projects worth $9.1 billion since 2022, with $1.7 billion already returned to the Treasury and a 51-project pipeline worth another $5.1 billion.
Outgoing Energy Minister Makozo Chikote, departing cabinet to seek a fresh parliamentary mandate, says Zambia is "destined to become a major energy hub in the region" and that the team he leaves behind has plans for Middle East-driven petroleum disruption.
Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa says the K26.3 billion supplementary budget came early because Cabinet will dissolve in June, MPs will be sworn in in August, and waiting until September would leave wages, allowances and farmer payments unfunded.
Zambia has signed a bilateral agreement with Israel to restructure US$460 million in debt owed to the Israeli state-backed insurer ASHRA. Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane called the deal proof of fiscal discipline; the repayment window runs to 2043.
Kansanshi Mining PLC says it spent about US$21 million on local procurement in the first quarter of 2026, drawing supply from 553 local companies and renewing contracts with named suppliers including Cable Network Solutions and Blue Lithium Communications.
Economist Trevor Hambayi argues Zambia must own at least 60% of its mines and bypass European intermediaries to benefit from China's new zero-tariff policy. Fellow economist Bright Chizonde calls for an outright suspension of raw-material exports.
Zambia's National Assembly has passed the Public Gatherings Bill, with the threshold for required police notification amended at Committee Stage from three to seven persons. Critics call it the death of democracy; the government says it preserves order.
Zambia is accusing the United States of linking a $2 billion health assistance deal to access to its critical minerals, in a sharpening dispute that opens a window on Donald Trump's transactional approach to African aid.
Mainga Kabika, the civil-service head of the gender division in Zambia's presidency, says aspiring female candidates have reported being asked for sexual favours in exchange for selection ahead of August's general election.
This is Kwacha News' coverage of the Zambian economy and the businesses that move within it — growth and inflation, the national budget, debt and the fiscal picture, trade and investment, and the policy decisions of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Zambia. The brief is plain reporting first: what changed, what the numbers say, and what it means for companies, workers and households. Mining, energy and agriculture recur here because they remain the spine of the Zambian economy, and the section reads them alongside the broader Southern African and global context that shapes commodity demand and capital flows.
