Data-center law in Zambia

National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-05

Zambia has no data-centre-specific siting, permitting, or utility statute. A data-centre project is instead governed by the general investment-incentive framework of the Investment, Trade and Business Development Act, 2022, administered by the Zambia Development Agency under the companion Zambia Development Agency Act, 2022.

Neither Act names information technology, data infrastructure, or data centres as a distinct priority sector; a data-centre project instead qualifies for incentives, on the terms available to any investor, by locating within a ministerially declared special economic zone, a term the Act defines to include a multi-facility economic zone, or by investing in a sector the Minister has separately declared a priority sector. No provision in either Act addresses electricity grid interconnection, water use, or air emissions specifically.

Instruments on record

1 instrument on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Public agreements

What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?

Investment, Trade and Business Development Act, 2022, special economic zone and priority sector incentives

In force

Investment, Trade and Business Development Act, 2022 (Act No. 18 of 2022)

Effective 2023-01-13 · Applies to private

Section 4 applies the Act to an investor investing in a sector, an industry, or any region of the Republic.

Section 7 lets the Minister, in consultation with the Minister responsible for finance and with the approval of Cabinet, declare an area a special economic zone by statutory instrument, a term the Act defines to include a multi-facility economic zone, industrial park, inter-country trade zone, or export processing zone, and to prescribe the zone's regulatory conditions, permitted facilities, and an investor's obligations.

Section 8 lets the Minister separately declare a sector a priority sector by statutory instrument. Section 30 makes an investor eligible for incentives under the Act if the investor invests in a new or expansion project in a special economic zone, a priority sector, a rural area, or a farm block, subject to a minimum-investment threshold that scales with the investor's ownership, from fifty thousand United States Dollars for a local investor up to one million dollars for others.

Section 31 channels any resulting tax or duty relief through certification by the Zambia Development Agency and the Minister responsible for finance. The Zambia Development Agency Act, 2022 continues the Agency that administers this licensing and certification process. That Act separately tasks the Agency with facilitating and promoting the development of special economic zones, but the incentive terms themselves sit in this Act.

Source: Full text of law