Session 3: A Fully Digital Zambia: How Prepared Are We? Session 4: Exploring The E-Commerce Value Chain (The State Of Commerce, Customer Experience, Brand Pay- ment, Trust And Digital Connectivity).

The opening plenary was moderated by Mr. Komba Malukutila, MD, MTN Fintech who was joined by Mr. Akash, Risk and compliance (MTN), Ms. T. Malemba, Head of products, (responsible for product evolution and all solutions seen), Ms. Chikondi Mwanza, Business Strategy and Mr. K. Chilongoshi the CIO. This panel reflected on the progress and potential of Fintech in Zambia.

KEYNOTE Zambia has put in place remarkable legislation and regulations that rank among the best in Africa, but there is still room for improvement in terms of awareness, updating the school curriculum to promote digitalization, and improving infrastructure utilization to support digital transformation.

Mr. Milner Makuni kicked off the discussions and explained that a scientific method was used to determine/know where Zambia is in terms of digitalization, with some of these inquiries being done by several bodies. He added that the results showed that Zambia is at 45%, meaning it is in the formative stage. He went on to inform the conference that Zambia is doing well in terms of policy and regulations; and that Zambia is actually topping most African countries. He also mentioned that Zambia has the infrastructure, however it is not good enough and that there is a need to move from just having enough infrastructure, to usage. The supply side shows that a lot has been done, but the consumer side shows that demand is still low. Mr. Makuni said that they are carrying out a holistic approach and are involving all stakeholders including academia. He added that the education curriculum needs to upscale and rescale; and that digitalization does not mean for instance that teachers will lose jobs, but there is a need for continuous learning, relook at the issue of training students to wait for government jobs. The future lies in improving the economy and promotion of cutting edge tech where several jobs will be created.

Mr. Sonny Zulu in response to questions pointed out 3 things:

„ Firstly, lack of awareness; there is technology that is available that people are not aware of. „ Secondly, upscaling and reality - IT specialists meet and discuss great ideas but decision makers, CEOs, managers etc are not aware, as such they will not approve any suggestions or plans. „ Lastly, Policies: Zambia needs to come to a time where directives are made in certain requirements in order to promote digitalization. For example, a directive to say beyond a certain amount, cash payments cannot be made. This will promote digitalization. There is a need for a digital tool to deduct toll fees and fees for insurance for example.

Toll stations are a waste of time, a waste of resources etc.

People waste a lot of productive time paying manually at toll gates. That is time which can be channelled towards productivity.

Mr. Makuni added that the future of work is changing and that most companies are tech companies. Most companies are shifting in terms of jobs. The world economy is going digital and there is no need for Zambia to remain behind the global trend.

Mr. Sonny Zulu added that one of the challenges affecting digitalization is the language barrier. Most of the information on the enablers (gadgets such as phones) and on the mobile applications is in the English language. These applications usually have translators, but most people are not aware of this, so they end up not being able to perform basic mobile transactions, due to the language barrier.

Mr. Percy Chinyama explained how Smart Zambia is responsible for driving digitalization and that the e-government division is a creation of an act of parliament. He added that the Government almost got paralyzed in the wake of covid-19, which brought a lot of problems in Zambia, but it also brought a lot of collaboration among key players. He further cited that there are over 515 public bodies and that there is a policy which demands all these bodies to be automated, and so far over 200 of these bodies have been automated. These services will be accessed through the ZAMPOST.

Dr. Mayombo Nyirenda said that there is a need for curriculum to be inclusive of the problems that need to be solved and there being a need for research and ensuring that the curriculum is in line with local needs. He noted that the important parts include producing the knowledge and being able to manage the knowledge produced. In terms of formal education, he added that there is no problem as the curriculum is inclusive of computer science and applied information technology. The problem is for the informal education sector.

Picture Gallery

SESSION 4: EXPLORING THE E-COMMERCE VALUE CHAIN (THE STATE OF COMMERCE, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, BRAND PAYMENT, TRUST AND DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY).

The session was moderated by Ms. Mwangala Sipumo, Communication and Public Relations Manager,E-Africa Expo with the panel consisting of Dr. Munyaradzi Gwatidzo CEO, Astro Technology, Zimbabwe who talked about building trust and digital connectivity and Mr. Aston Njovu, ZeePay Zambia, who talked about using e-commerce. The trio explored the e-commerce value chain, the state of commerce, customer experience, brand payment, trust and digital connectivity in Zambia and beyond.

KEYNOTE e-commerce acceleration has been carried out in rural areas by offering education and awareness on the subject. Pointed out how the Covid-19 pandemic saw a rise in the use of e-commerce services like Ulendo Eats and mobile money and eWallet services to achieve daily tasks especially during the lockdown achieving a milestone that would have taken a lot more years. Need for players in the ecosystem to pave way for such services.

Ms. Sipumo highlighted how eAfricaExpo has endeavoured to accelerate e-commerce in Zambia by offering tailor made solutions for rural areas by educating the communities about the relevance of e-commerce, making services and internet available to the end-users. She added that they have partnered with the government through the Ministry of Science Technology and Smart Zambia as a deliberate move to create an ecosystem that brings different players under one roof to bridge the gap of ignorance.

Mr. Njovu disclosed that Zambia’s tele-density was over 100% and when it came to e-commerce, the country was moving in the right direction with FinTech. And it was sad to acknowledge that Covid-19 helped in achieving what would have taken 10 years in just a period of 2 years (2019-2021). During this period we saw the rise of Ulendo Eats and mobile money and e-wallet services to pay for school fees, water bills and electricity bills. There’s quite a significant proportion of transactions that are facilitated via mobile money services and e-wallet platform which implied that as a country we are on the right trajectory. Mr. Njovu made known of issues regarding security, how Bank of Zambia monitors and regulates the players in the ecosystem sector. This is through the provision of a number of Acts such as Information technology Act, Cyber security Act, Data protection Act, just to mention a few.

Dr. Munyaradzi acknowledged that even though there was technology in digital connectivity, the issue was with enablers and how these players in the ecosystem need to enable the technologies like ulendo, e-agriculture, e-commerce, etc.