Inside Zambia’s Measurement Watchdog
By Francis Maingaila ♥️
Lusaka, Zambia 24 – (26 December 2025)
Fuel that seems to vanish faster than expected. A bag of mealie meal that feels just a little too light when lifted. A farmer leaving a buying depot unsettled, certain something was wrong but unable to prove it.
Across Zambia, such experiences are common. They provoke irritation, resignation, and muted suspicion—seldom resistance.
Most people shake their heads, blame circumstance, or absorb the loss as part of everyday survival.
Few recognise that these moments are linked. Together, they point to an unseen system that decides whether money quietly drains from households, whether businesses compete on equal ground, and whether public revenue is fully collected.
At the centre of that system sits the Zambia Metrology Agency (ZMA). Created under the Metrology Act No. 6 of 2017 and operating under the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, ZMA is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and reliability of measurements used in commerce, healthcare, safety, mining, agriculture, and law enforcement.
In practical terms, the agency determines whether what Zambians across the ten provinces buy—or sell—matches what is promised.
What emerges from investigations conducted in selected provinces, including Lusaka, Central, Eastern, and the Copperbelt, is neither spectacle nor scandal, but something more consequential: the cumulative economic and social impact of precision—or its absence.
ZMA Executive Director Humphrey Nkobeni describes inaccurate measurement as a silent risk, not because it is dramatic, but because it repeats unnoticed.
“When measurement is wrong, the loss does not happen once,” Nkobeni explains.
“It occurs repeatedly—across transactions, day after day.”
Without enforced standards, he argues, markets slide into approximation.
He said consumer confidence weakens, ethical enterprises lose ground, and state revenue erodes without detection.
He said verification, in his view, is less about punishment than restoring equilibrium.
“Measurement is often overlooked,” Dodia says.
“Yet a small error, multiplied across the country, becomes enormous.”
Even a one-percent discrepancy in fuel sales or mineral exports, he notes, can translate into losses exceeding the budgets of major social programmes.
“The danger,” he adds, “is that no one feels the loss all at once—so the problem persists.”
For many citizens, the most visible arena where these issues play out is the fuel station.
ZMA records show that the agency conducts bi-annual statutory verifications alongside unannounced inspections of fuel pumps, bulk flowmeters, master meters, and related equipment at service stations.
Technical officers explain that pumps rarely fail outright. Instead, calibration drifts gradually, delivering slightly less fuel with each purchase.
To an individual motorist, the difference feels abstract. At national scale, it is substantial.
Equipment that meets regulatory requirements is sealed with official ZMA verification stickers, while non-compliant pumps are withdrawn from service.
Sandra Mwila, ZMA’s Senior Public Relations Officer, stresses that these stickers carry legal authority, not cosmetic value.
“A pump operating without a valid verification sticker is functioning outside the law,” Mwila explains, adding that consumers are legally entitled to refuse service.
She concedes that inspections alone are not sufficient.
“Consumers must know what to check,” Mwila says.
“Awareness offers protection just as inspections do.”
Armed with that knowledge, Lusaka commuter Chileshe Mwale adjusted his habits.
“There was a station I stopped using,” he recalls.
“No matter how much fuel I bought, the gauge dropped too quickly. Now I look for the sticker. It gives me confidence.”
During 2025, ZMA carried out statutory verification exercises on fuel dispensing instruments nationwide as part of its mandate to ensure accuracy and protect consumers.
Inspectors verified the presence of valid stickers and compliance with legal metrology standards under the Metrology Act No. 6 of 2017.
The agency has urged the public to report fuel pumps that lack verification stickers or are suspected to be inaccurate.
Economists estimate that a deviation of just half a percent in national fuel dispensing—spread across millions of litres—can divert tens of millions of kwacha from consumers annually.
Comparable discrepancies in food packaging and produce weighing quietly drain household budgets. No alarm sounds. No receipt exposes the shortfall. The loss simply accumulates.
That same arithmetic extends into food manufacturing and retail.
During the third quarter of 2025, ZMA inspected 231,524 pre-packaged products across 33 manufacturing sites, recording an overall compliance rate of 93.4 percent.
Mid-year figures for the first half of 2025 show inspections of 444,908 locally produced pre-packaged commodities, with a compliance rate of 95.2 percent, alongside 1,689,845 imported products achieving 98 percent compliance.
Underweight packaging short-changes consumers and distorts competition by disadvantaging compliant businesses.
Retailers often absorb customer frustration for non-compliant goods they did not manufacture.
Industry players, particularly smaller operators, acknowledge the cost implications of compliance amid enforcement actions such as quarantines and recalls on mealie meal.
At the same time, many concede that consistent oversight has reduced disputes and restored trust. Some declined to speak publicly, citing fear of scrutiny.
For Joseph Banda, a small-scale retailer in Kitwe, the change is tangible.
“Before, customers complained,” he says. “Now they return. They trust the products.”
In August 2024, ZMA seized 15 underweight 25-kilogram bags of mealie meal—averaging 22 kilograms—from a shop in Lusaka’s State Lodge area following public complaints.
A follow-up inspection at the manufacturing plant found compliant weights, prompting further investigation into the discrepancy.
Earlier cases in 2022 involved underweight bags from Nyimba Milling and African Milling, leading to penalties and recalls outside Lusaka, despite compliant plant inspections.
Local retailers reported a noticeable reduction in customer complaints following enforcement actions, while several farmers confirmed that fairer measurements at buying depots enabled them to receive full value for their produce.
In rural areas, the consequences of inaccurate measurement are often more personal.
ZMA officers highlight the risks posed by faulty scales at agricultural buying points, which can disadvantage small-scale farmers lacking the means to verify brief digital readings.
Joint verification efforts with agencies such as the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) ensure that scales used in grain marketing are certified, promoting fairness across agricultural markets.
ZMA activities in 2025—including verification of scales at Mount Meru Millers for cotton and at FRA depots—underscore the agency’s role in safeguarding agricultural transactions.
Inspections conducted in Eastern and Central provinces in early 2025, supported by joint operations with other agencies, led to notable improvements in compliance.
For Mary Phiri, a farmer in Katete, accurate weighing brought dignity as much as income.
“When the scale is fair, I feel respected,” she says.
“I return home knowing my effort counted.”
In mining, where volumes are vast and margins significant, precision becomes a matter of national consequence.
Nkobeni describes metrology in the sector as central to revenue protection, as export quantities determine royalties, taxes, and foreign-exchange inflows.
Without independent verification, under-declaration becomes both tempting and difficult to detect.
In 2025, ZMA licensed 285 technicians and registered 79 companies under its regulatory framework, a move officials say has strengthened accountability and traceability across the sector.
The law leaves little ambiguity. Under the Metrology Act, the use of unverified or tampered instruments constitutes an offence punishable by fines, seizure, or prosecution, with repeat violations attracting escalating penalties, including suspension.
ZMA’s mandate also extends to areas where accuracy directly affects lives and liberties.
The agency calibrates patient scales and drug-dispensing equipment in hospitals, including the University Teaching Hospital, and verifies speed-measuring devices used in traffic enforcement to ensure penalties are based on defensible evidence.
Despite maintaining a low public profile, ZMA’s work has gained international recognition. In 2025, Zambia’s measurement capabilities were listed on the BIPM Key Comparison Database.
Nkobeni’s appointment to the International Committee of Legal Metrology Presidential Council, alongside ZMA’s receipt of the OIML CEEMS Award, further elevated Zambia’s standing.
Regionally, specialists say Zambia now ranks among a small group of SADC states with credible measurement systems—an increasingly valuable asset in cross-border trade.
Challenges persist. Limited funding, ageing equipment, and transport constraints restrict inspection reach, particularly in remote areas. A 6.6 percent non-compliance rate remains.
To address this, ZMA expanded licensing and registration in 2025 to strengthen coverage and enforcement capacity.
Analysts caution that neglecting institutions such as ZMA is a false economy.
Underfunding metrology does not eliminate costs; it merely shifts them onto consumers, farmers, and the public purse.
What this investigation reveals is not a dramatic exposé, but a quiet reality.
Measurement rarely draws attention, yet it shapes fairness, confidence, and dignity in daily life.
Between what is promised and what is delivered, Zambia’s measurement watchdog stands quietly—determining whether the economy operates on trust or approximation.
For ordinary Zambians, that distinction is not abstract. It is felt in every litre dispensed, every bag lifted, and every kwacha earned.
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