ZAMBIA BETS ON DIGITAL TRUST

NPKI strengthens digital security, protects online transactions and builds confidence in Zambia’s digital economy

By Francis Maingaila ♥️

Lusaka, Zambia24 -- (7-09-2026) -- The Government of the Republic of Zambia has launched the National Public Key Infrastructure (NPKI), a digital trust and security framework designed to protect digital identities, strengthen identity verification and secure electronic transactions and documents as the country accelerates its digital transformation and builds confidence in its growing digital economy.

Ministry of Technology and Science Permanent Secretary Dr. Brilliant Habeenzu said Zambia’s digital transformation could not succeed on connectivity and online platforms alone, stressing that citizens, businesses and investors needed assurance that their digital identities, transactions and information were secure.

“Digital information requires digital trust,” Dr. Habeenzu said.

He said the NPKI was therefore more than a technical project, describing it as a strategic investment in Zambia’s digital future and a key component of the country’s broader digital transformation agenda.

Dr. Habeenzu said Government was focusing on three areas to support the initiative: strengthening the policy and legal framework, investing in secure digital infrastructure and building partnerships with industry, academia, civil society and international partners.

He said the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act had provided the legal foundation for the Public Key Infrastructure framework and the establishment of a National Root Certification Authority.

Government, he said, would continue updating regulations, harmonising standards with regional and international frameworks and strengthening the legal environment to give citizens and businesses confidence in electronic transactions.

Dr. Habeenzu said the NPKI would also complement investments in telecommunications networks, secure data centres and cybersecurity systems by providing a trusted security layer for digital services.

He said Government would further work on expanding connectivity, strengthening digital identity systems and building resilient networks to support the digital economy.

The Permanent Secretary said partnerships with technology companies, innovators, entrepreneurs and international organisations would be important in ensuring that the NPKI responded to practical needs.

He said the initiative could also open opportunities for local technology companies to develop products and services around trusted digital identities, digital signatures and secure electronic transactions.

Dr. Habeenzu said digital trust was particularly important in attracting investment because investors needed predictable systems backed by reliable infrastructure and a legal framework capable of protecting digital transactions.

“The NPKI contributes to this environment by signalling that Zambia is putting in place the institutional and technical foundations required for a modern digital economy,” he said.

He said a secure digital environment would also allow Government to reduce reliance on paper-based processes, physical signatures and the movement of documents.

According to Dr. Habeenzu, greater use of authenticated electronic documents, verified identities and secure digital transactions could make public services faster, more efficient, accountable, cost-effective and accessible.

He, however, cautioned that digital trust could not be achieved through the NPKI alone.

He said reliable connectivity, secure data centres, resilient networks, cybersecurity capabilities, digital identity systems and skilled personnel were all necessary to support a secure digital ecosystem.

“The objective, therefore, should be to progressively create an environment where trust is embedded into digital services by design, rather than treated as an afterthought,” Dr. Habeenzu said.

He urged Government institutions to actively participate in the National PKI framework and called for stronger engagement between Government and industry to ensure that implementation produced practical results.

Dr. Habeenzu said the ultimate test of Zambia’s digital transformation would be its impact on citizens.

As more public and private services move online, he said citizens must be assured that their personal information and identities would be protected from fraud, impersonation, phishing and other forms of digital exploitation.

He described the establishment of the NPKI as an important milestone but said its real success would depend on how effectively it was adopted and used to support secure digital government services, businesses and the wider economy.

Dr. Habeenzu said Government remained committed to creating the policy, legal and infrastructure environment needed to support digital transformation and attract local and international investment.

He said Zambia’s ambition was to build a digital economy that was productive, secure and trusted.

ZICTA Board Chairperson Prof. Mundia Muya said the infrastructure would provide the foundation for trusted digital interactions by enabling the verification of people, organisations, devices, documents and electronic transactions.

Speaking at the launch, Prof. Muya said Zambia’s growing reliance on digital government services, mobile money, digital banking, e-commerce and online business transactions had made digital trust increasingly important.

“Today is not simply about launching another technology platform. It is about strengthening trust, which is fundamental to the success of our digital economy as a country,” Prof. Muya said.

He said connectivity alone could not sustain Zambia’s digital transformation if citizens and businesses could not be certain that the people, systems and documents they encountered online were genuine.

Prof. Muya explained that the NPKI would use digital certificates and signatures to establish identity and verify the authenticity of electronic transactions and documents, helping to prevent tampering and impersonation.

He said the system would also strengthen Zambia’s resilience against fraud, phishing and other cyber threats.

“Our approach is also anchored on the principle that trust should not simply be assumed. Identities, devices and transactions must be appropriately verified to reduce the risk of unauthorised access, fraud and other cyber threats,” he said.

Prof. Muya said the benefits of the NPKI would extend across government, businesses and consumers.

For government, he said, the infrastructure would support secure electronic government services, digital approvals, electronic documents and paperless processes.

For businesses, the system was expected to reduce the cost and time associated with paper-based transactions while improving the authenticity of electronic documents and facilitating secure digital dealings with customers, suppliers and government.

Consumers, he said, would benefit from a safer digital environment through stronger identity verification and greater protection of electronic transactions from impersonation and tampering.

Prof. Muya said the infrastructure could also strengthen identity assurance in sectors such as telecommunications and financial services when appropriately integrated into existing systems.

He said the ultimate goal was to create a digital environment where citizens would no longer have to question whether an online service was genuine.

“The systems will provide the mechanism that enables that trust to be established,” Prof. Muya said.

He further disclosed that ZICTA, in its capacity as the National Root Certification Authority, had operationalised the National Digital Trust Anchor, providing the foundation upon which participating entities could build trusted digital certificate services.

According to Prof. Muya, the trust anchor would allow digital certificates and signatures to be independently verified through an established trust chain, helping determine whether a transaction was authentic and whether the identity associated with it could be trusted.

He said the expected outcome was greater efficiency, reduced fraud and lower administrative costs.

Prof. Muya stressed that the NPKI was not a ZICTA project alone but a national digital infrastructure whose success would depend on broad stakeholder participation.

He called on government institutions, financial institutions, telecommunications operators, businesses, technology service providers, professional bodies and other stakeholders to embrace the framework and integrate trusted digital certificates and signatures into their systems where appropriate.

“Government cannot pave the digital future in isolation. The regulator, government, industry and consumers must work together,” he said.

Prof. Muya also called for continued public awareness programmes to help citizens understand digital identity, digital signatures and their rights and responsibilities in the digital ecosystem.

He said the launch came at a time when artificial intelligence, cloud computing, digital financial services, the Internet of Things and e-commerce were rapidly changing how people lived and conducted business.

“The more connected society becomes, the more important digital trust will become,” Prof. Muya said.

He said the NPKI should therefore not be viewed as an end in itself but as an enabling foundation for Zambia’s digital future.

Prof. Muya said ZICTA’s vision was to see citizens and businesses confidently transact electronically, government services increasingly become paperless, digital documents become trusted and innovation take place within a secure and predictable digital environment.

He thanked Government, institutions and technical teams that had contributed to the establishment of the National PKI, reaffirming ZICTA’s commitment to working with stakeholders to strengthen Zambia’s digital trust ecosystem.

“We are not merely digitising processes. We are building trust in the digital economy,” Prof. Muya said.

Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) Director General Eng. Collins Mbulo said the NPKI marked a significant milestone in the country's efforts to build a secure, trusted and digitally enabled economy.

Eng. Mbulo said the infrastructure would provide the foundation for trust in the digital environment through the use of digital certificates and certificate authorities.

He said the system would help establish the identity of parties involved in online transactions, validate electronic transactions and records, and safeguard digital information from security threats.

“Today marks an important milestone in Zambia’s journey towards building a secure, trusted and digitally enabled economy,” Eng. Mbulo said.

He said the launch came at a time when digital platforms were increasingly becoming central to the delivery of services and interactions between government, businesses and citizens.

Eng. Mbulo said the NPKI would therefore play a critical role in creating confidence in electronic transactions by providing mechanisms for verifying identities and authenticating digital information.

He commended the Ministry of Technology and Science for the support and guidance provided throughout the development of the infrastructure.

Eng. Mbulo also recognised the leadership of the ZICTA Board Chairperson and the Executive Board, as well as the technical team and cooperating partners who contributed to the initiative.

He said their collective efforts had helped bring the long-awaited digital trust infrastructure to fruition.

Smart Zambia National Coordinator Percy Chinyama has warned that delays in implementing digital innovations could undermine investments in Zambia’s digital transformation agenda, urging the public sector to move at the speed required by technology.

Speaking at the launch of the National Public Key Infrastructure (NPKI), Chinyama said Zambia could not afford to subject technology-driven initiatives to slow government processes because innovations could quickly become outdated.

He said discussions on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) had been ongoing for a long time, making the launch of the NPKI an important milestone in the country’s digitalisation journey.

“Today is a day that should have happened a long time ago. Talk of PKI started a long time ago, but it has now arrived, and we are happy it has arrived,” Chinyama said.

He said the country now needed to focus on ensuring that critical and innovative technologies were implemented within the required timeframe.

Chinyama said technology was different from other sectors because innovations could become obsolete within a short period if implementation was delayed.

He further called for greater attention to the sustainability of digital initiatives, warning that good projects could fail when planning, financing and human resource requirements were not considered from the beginning.

“We need to talk about sustainability. We need to ensure that we have the staff that are capable of maintaining innovations such as this and that we have adequate funds to sustain innovations such as this one that we are launching today,” he said.

Chinyama said sustainability should not only be considered for the NPKI but also for other digital systems and linkages that would support the country’s wider digital transformation programme.

He urged government institutions and development partners to plan for the resources required to maintain digital infrastructure beyond the launch of individual projects.

He also challenged the public sector to change its approach to innovation, identifying resistance to new technologies, dependence on external support and delays in decision-making as three major concerns.

Chinyama said government institutions should move away from resisting new technologies simply because existing systems were already in place.

“One of my concerns is refusal to accept innovation. When innovation comes, the common response in the public sector is that we already have something that can do this. That is dangerous, especially when that something has not been doing what it is supposed to do,” he said.

He also warned against excessive reliance on external support, saying failure to develop internal technical capacity could leave institutions dependent on vendors.

According to Chinyama, government institutions risk becoming “vendor locked” when they lack personnel capable of managing and maintaining digital systems after their implementation.

“We need to get out of that,” he said.

On the need for speed, Chinyama likened delays in implementing technology projects to preparing a cup of coffee but spending too much time looking for sugar or a sweetener.

He said while a cup of coffee could simply be thrown away, the same could not be said about major technology investments involving significant public resources.

Chinyama called for legal, procurement, technical and other relevant government officials to work together when making decisions affecting the technology sector.

He said government processes should take into account the unique nature of technology and the cost of delaying decisions.

“We cannot manage our sector the way other sectors are managed. We cannot afford it because it becomes more costly when you do things in time,” he said.

Chinyama said the NPKI would support Zambia’s continuing digitalisation efforts, including innovations such as digital identity and the delivery of government services through digital platforms.

He urged public-sector institutions to become more open to new technologies and ensure that the systems supporting digital transformation were developed alongside the innovations themselves.

Chinyama commended the teams that worked on the NPKI initiative, saying although the process had taken time, its launch marked the beginning of a wider journey towards a more digitally enabled public sector.

“A genuine goal has not ended; it has just begun. We have a big journey in front of us, and that journey starts now,” he said.

The launch positions the NPKI as a key component of Zambia's broader digital transformation agenda, particularly as more public and private services move online.