The following is an in-depth analysis of the fintech and wider digital economic development of African nation Zambia.
Zambia has achieved something remarkable in little more than a decade. In 2011, only around one in five adults had an account with a financial institution or mobile-money provider. Since then, access to formal and digital financial services has expanded dramatically.
The telephone played a large part in that transformation.
Mobile money allowed millions of Zambians to transfer funds, pay bills and store money without depending on conventional bank branches. By 2024, Zambia had approximately 14.7 million registered mobile-money accounts, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) Financial Access Survey data.
But 2026 presents a different challenge. Opening a wallet is no longer enough. Zambia now needs fintech to help households save, businesses access credit and rural communities participate more fully in an economy that is recovering from years of debt problems and electricity shortages. The country’s next fintech chapter is therefore about turning financial access into something more useful.
Copper is powering the recovery again
Zambia remains one of Africa’s most important copper producers. Mining dominates exports, while agriculture, construction, services, manufacturing and telecommunications contribute to the wider economy. Lusaka is the country’s principal financial centre, with banks including Zanaco, Stanbic Bank Zambia, Absa Zambia and Standard Chartered Zambia operating alongside an increasingly diverse payments industry.
The economic environment has improved significantly. The IMF expects real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.8 per cent this year, supported by recovering electricity generation alongside strong mining and services activity. Inflation is also expected to continue falling towards the Bank of Zambia’s target range.
That represents a significant change following drought, electricity shortages and the sovereign debt crisis that dominated Zambia’s economic story earlier in the decade. Fintech cannot resolve those structural problems. It can, however, make the recovery more accessible to businesses and households.
Mobile money became the everyday bank
Zambia’s financial-inclusion transformation cannot be separated from MTN MoMo, Airtel Money and Zamtel Money. Mobile-money agents extended basic financial services into communities where building conventional bank branches would have been commercially difficult.
The result is that mobile money is no longer simply a mechanism for transferring cash between relatives. It increasingly functions as a financial account.
World Bank Global Findex data for 2024 provides an indication of how that behaviour has developed. Among surveyed Zambians using mobile money, around 77 per cent typically kept money in their account, while mobile money was also being used for formal saving.
This changes the financial-inclusion conversation. The question is no longer simply whether Zambians can access digital finance. It is what else they can do once they are inside it.
Zambia has produced its own fintech companies
The country’s fintech ecosystem is also becoming more diverse. The Payments Association of Zambia (PAYZ) brings together organisations operating across mobile money, fintech, payments, banking, remittances and microfinance. Its membership includes companies such as Lupiya, Zazu, Jabu and Probase alongside banks and major mobile-money providers.
One particularly interesting example is Lupiya. Founded in Zambia, the company has evolved from digital lending towards what it describes as an AI-powered neobank offering loans, payments and investments. Its platform seeks to use technology to provide financial products to individuals and businesses that may find conventional financial services difficult to access.
Another example is Zazu, which emerged from Zambia with the objective of providing digital financial products and subsequently expanded its ambitions beyond the domestic market. The significance of these companies is that Zambia’s fintech ecosystem is gradually moving beyond payments.
The first generation made moving money easier. The next is trying to connect payments with credit, investment and broader financial management.
2026 also marks the end of the cheque
Sometimes fintech progress becomes clearest when an old technology disappears. The Bank of Zambia has been phasing out cheques as the country moves towards electronic alternatives.
Commercial banks stopped issuing new cheque books in March 2025. The final date for customers to deposit cheques was set for this past June, followed by the final interbank clearing of cheques on the same month.
That is more significant than it might initially appear. Removing cheques pushes businesses and individuals towards electronic transfers and other digital-payment channels, gradually changing the infrastructure through which commercial activity takes place. The same central-bank report highlights another regulatory priority: affordability.
The Bank of Zambia introduced directives prohibiting unwarranted charges and fees on electronic-money services, explicitly linking the measure to financial inclusion and consumer rights. For lower-income consumers, transaction costs can determine whether digital finance is used occasionally or every day.
The target is 85 per cent
Zambia now has a formal roadmap for taking inclusion further. The government’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy II 2024-2028 aims to raise overall financial inclusion to 85 per cent. Its focus goes beyond simply increasing account numbers.
Priority groups include rural adults, women, young people, people working in agriculture, micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), refugees, older citizens and people with disabilities. Digital financial services, consumer protection and inclusive green finance also feature prominently.
This is important because the remaining financially excluded population will probably be harder to reach. Connecting an urban smartphone owner in Lusaka is relatively straightforward. Providing affordable and useful financial services to a smallholder farmer in a rural community is considerably more difficult.
Regulation is leaving room for experimentation
The Bank of Zambia has also recognised that new financial products do not always fit neatly into existing rules. Its regulatory sandbox allows fintech companies and regulated institutions to test innovative products in a controlled live environment before moving towards full-scale deployment.
The framework considers whether proposed innovations can benefit consumers and promote financial inclusion. During 2024, several companies expressed interest in participating and one product successfully completed testing and exited the sandbox.
The wider regulated ecosystem has become substantial. The Bank of Zambia currently lists 89 payment systems, alongside 15 commercial banks and numerous non-bank financial institutions. This illustrates how dramatically the definition of Zambia’s financial sector has expanded. Banks are still important, but they increasingly sit within a much broader network of mobile-money providers, payment companies, lenders and financial technology businesses.
Copper could create fintech’s next opportunity
Zambia’s fintech story also needs to be considered alongside its most important industry. Copper demand is being supported globally by electrification, renewable energy, electric vehicles and data-centre infrastructure. Zambia is seeking to increase copper production substantially while attracting investment into mining and associated industries.
That expansion creates opportunities extending far beyond the mines themselves. Suppliers need working capital. Contractors need payroll and payment systems. SMEs require financing, while workers increasingly expect wages and financial services to be accessible digitally.
Fintech can help connect those businesses with Zambia’s wider economic growth. The opportunity is therefore not simply digitising consumer payments. It is building financial infrastructure around a changing economy.
Looking ahead
Zambia has already demonstrated what mobile money can accomplish. Millions of people use mobile wallets, electronic payments are becoming increasingly normal and a domestic fintech industry is emerging around payments, lending and financial infrastructure.
The challenge in 2026 is making that access deeper. Zambians need affordable credit, meaningful savings products and digital services that work as well for a farmer outside Lusaka as they do for an urban professional.
With economic growth recovering and copper attracting substantial investment, fintech has and opportunity to connect more people and businesses with that expansion. Mobile money opened the door to Zambia’s financial system. The next stage is ensuring that people have somewhere useful to go once they walk through it.
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