State of the Digital Financial Services Market in Zambia, 2018

This report shares findings from the Annual Provider Survey (APS), which UNCDF has conducted for over three years, and which UNCDF and Bank of Zambia compiled into the report.

The 2018 report revealed that 18 digital financial services (DFS) providers operated in Zambia, the same as the previous year, and though no new products were launched in the year, the majority of providers considered DFS a commercially sustainable side of their business. This year, 85 percent of providers continuously increased investment in their technical and organizational capacity, and providers dedicated more than 72 percent of their DFS staff to agent network management, further illustrating how meaningful these services are to providers.

Another interesting trend in 2018 was with regards to agents: the number of active agents in Zambia’s DFS ecosystem was reported to be 46,781 nationwide, an increase of 104 percent from 2017. The growth in number of agents is critical to increasing access to DFS, however, the challenges within the 11 agent networks exhibited in 2018 may inhibit that access and further industry growth.