Fitting Emerging Technologies to Local Conditions

Emerging technologies arrive with bold promises. For policymakers in emerging economies like Zambia, the useful question is not whether a technology is revolutionary. It is which of our problems a technology can solve, at what cost, and under what conditions. Zambia’s experience over the past three years is instructive. The biggest gains have come not from exotic technologies but from well-targeted digital systems applied to old, people-facing problems. Four sectors are exemplified.

1. Social cash transfers: getting money to the vulnerable

The Social Cash Transfer (SCT) programme now supports about 1.56 million households across all 116 districts, and 89% of beneficiaries are paid digitally through mobile money or banks. According to the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, government is also distributing more than 200,000 feature phones to elderly beneficiaries who have no handset, so that no one is left out of digital payment.

The World Bank has rated Zambia the region’s best performer in digitising SCT payments, a shift credited with improving efficiency and transparency. Behind this sits the Zambia Integrated Social Protection Information System (ZISPIS), a single national register of beneficiaries that is connected in real time to banks and payment providers. Where mobile networks are weak, an offline payment solution developed with Zamtel is being piloted in places such as Chisamba District.

The next frontier is to use analytics on the register to flag duplicate or ineligible entries, to link it to digital identity, and to remove the withdrawal fees that eat into small grants. During the 2024 drought, MTN waived such fees for recipients of humanitarian aid, as VoxDev reports, which shows the cost problem is real.

2. The informal sector and the formalisation dilemma

According to the 2024 Labour Force Survey by the Zambia Statistics Agency, 71.2% of employed Zambians are in informal employment, with no entitlement to social security, paid leave or sick leave. The rate reaches 87.8% in rural areas, against 59.3% in towns. By industry, informality is highest in agriculture (94%) and in wholesale and retail trade (84%).

Formalisation is a genuine dilemma. For example, registering with Patents and Companies Registration Agency, Zambia Revenue Authority, and National Pensions Scheme Authority (NAPSA) brings compliance costs, while many urban informal firms already enjoy services such as electricity and water without paying those costs. The result is financial exclusion. Bank of Zambia data show that Micro-Small and Medium Enterprise received only about 2.5% of loans disbursed by financial providers in 2019.

Mobile money offers a way through. The government’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy II (2024–2028) reports that adult use of mobile money rose to about 58% by 2020, far above the roughly 21% of adults using banks. Transaction histories could serve as credit records. A single mobile channel could combine business registration, simplified tax, and small regular contributions to NAPSA’s informal-sector pension scheme.

Formalisation must feel like a gain, not a penalty. That is why the debate on taxing mobile money transactions is a warning: raising the cost of digital channels risks pushing traders back into cash.

3. The energy crisis: from a single point of failure to distributed power

Zambia’s installed generating capacity reached 3,871 MW in 2024, and hydropower still accounts for about 82% of the mix, according to the Ministry of Energy. That dependence proved costly. By 27 September 2024, the Zambezi River Authority recorded Lake Kariba’s usable storage at just 6.79%, down from 22.6% a year earlier. Load-shedding stretched to as much as 20 hours a day. Rural households were already worst off. The 2023 National Energy Access Survey found that 53.6% of households nationally have electricity access, but only 34.0% in rural areas compared with 80.3% in urban areas.

Distributed solar paired with mobile money is starting to close this gap. Sun King reports delivering one million solar kits in Zambia since 2021, paid in instalments over 12 to 24 months through mobile money. Smart meters, AI demand forecasting and solar mini-grids can extend this further.

Affordability remains the binding constraint. Because off-grid solar relies on expensive commercial finance, the poorest households often pay the highest price per unit of electricity. Targeted subsidies and results-based finance are therefore essential.

4. Agriculture: smarter subsidies for smallholders

The Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) shows what digitisation can achieve at scale. The World Bank’s FISP assessment shows the e-voucher growing quickly:

•      2023/24: 17 districts, 221,899 farmers.

•      2024/25: 74 districts, 739,266 farmers.

•      2025/26: all 116 districts, targeting 1,024,434 farmers.

Under the e-voucher system, farmers redeem vouchers at registered agro-dealers for inputs of their choice, rather than receiving fixed packs.

A digital register also makes clean-up possible. The Presidential Delivery Unit reports that 212,851 ineligible names were removed in 2024/25, including people in formal employment and pensioners, and that 208,594 new eligible farmers were added in their place.

Building on this base, satellite data can support index-based crop insurance, SMS advisory services can deliver timely planting and pest alerts, and redemption records can support credit scoring for smallholders.

What makes the difference

Across these sectors the pattern is consistent. Technology works when it:

•      starts from a clearly defined problem;

•      is designed for local realities such as weak networks, basic phones and unreliable power;

•      keeps costs low for the poorest user;

•      is governed with sound data protection and accountability.

Zambia’s experience with SCT payments and FISP e-vouchers shows the country can build such systems. The task now is to extend the same discipline to the informal economy and energy access, where the potential to transform the lives of poor Zambians is greatest.

Sources

Government and official statistics

•      Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (2024). Zambia is the best performing country with digital payment of Social Cash Transfer in the region

•      Zambia Integrated Social Protection Information System. ZISPIS portal

•      Zambia Statistics Agency and Ministry of Labour and Social Security (2025). 2024 Labour Force Survey Report

•      Ministry of Finance and National Planning (2024). National Financial Inclusion Strategy II 2024–2028

•      National Pension Scheme Authority. Formal and informal sector schemes

•      Ministry of Energy. Energy Sector overview

•      Zambezi River Authority (2024). Update on the 2025 water allocation for power generation and the current hydrological outlook at Kariba Dam

•      Zambia Statistics Agency and Ministry of Energy (2025). 2023 National Energy Access Survey

•      Ministry of Agriculture. Farmer Input Support Programme: e-Voucher

•      Presidential Delivery Unit (2026). How FISP e-Voucher is delivering support where it matters most

International institutions and research

•      World Bank (2026). The Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP): Full report

•      Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. Zambia: Social Cash Transfer (SCT)

•      VoxDev (2025). Mobile money in Zambia: Opportunities, challenges and current policy debates

•      International Growth Centre. Developing Zambia’s informal sector and enhancing its contribution to the fiscus

•      Energy for Growth Hub (2025). Off-grid solar’s poverty premium

News reports (used where no primary online version was found)

•      Zambia Monitor (2026). Govt rolls out 200,000 phones to elderly Social Cash Transfer beneficiaries

•      TechAfrica News (2025). Zambia leads digital push with offline payment solution for Social Cash Transfers

•      ZAM (2022). Unlocking SME finance through enterprise formalisation

•      Lusaka Times (2024). Lake Kariba’s water levels plummet, forcing hydropower shutdown in Zambia

•      Prima News (2026). Acumen invests $5M in Sun King Zambia to expand solar access