from ARNOLD MULENGA in Lusaka, Zambia
Zambia Bureau
LUSAKA, (CAJ News) – THE SMART Zambia Institute (SZI), the government’s electronic division, has endorsed the administration’s Grow Zambia Agenda (GZA) 2026–2031, citing the blueprint’s eight national targets on digital infrastructure.
The agenda is the blueprint of the President Hakainde Hichilema-led government, in power for a second term since elections held in the middle of August and sworn in recently.
Among other targets, the agenda aims to increase maize production to 10 million tonnes, generate 10 000 MW of power and boost copper production to 3 million tonnes.
“The Grow Zambia Agenda is not just an economic plan. It is a digital mandate,” Percy Chinyama, SZI National Coordinator, said.
“Smart Zambia Institute welcomes it fully, and we are ready to be the backbone that carries it,” Chinyama continued.
He confirmed key programmes already in motion to power the agenda.
These include digitising 2,5 million smallholder farmers under the National Farmer Registry and e-Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP), one-stop business and export clearance, and securing the nation’s digital economy.
Chinyama said that to keep Zambia on course, SZI was building a real-time GZA Monitoring Dashboard, feeding progress on all targets straight to Cabinet and the Presidency, so the Southern African country could track delivery live, all the way to 2031.
“The digital foundation is being laid. The targets are set. The countdown has begun,” he said.
GZA 2026–2031 is the government’s economic and developmental framework for the second term, aiming to double Zambia’s economy to over US$60 billion.
Information and communication technology is to serve as the digital backbone and primary economic catalyst for the GZA.
ICT has been identified as the enabler to transition Zambia from basic stabilisation to an automated, data-driven and highly integrated regional market.
– CAJ News