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Good practice Imported

Digital Zambia Acceleration Project — A $100M World Bank Push for Inclusive Digital ID and Connectivity

Zambia · Lusaka · See the Zambia profile · See the Lusaka profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 82% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

A $100M World Bank IDA grant approved 23 Sept 2025 funds Zambia's DZAP: affordable broadband, an interoperable digital ID and public e-services explicitly designed to include women, girls, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

100 USD million
World Bank IDA grant
2.48 USD billion
Regional IDEA programme total value
2026 year (end of)
Target year for national digital-ID rollout
Digital Zambia Acceleration Project — A $100M World Bank Push for Inclusive Digital ID and Connectivity

Details

Promoter
SMART Zambia Institute (Government of the Republic of Zambia), World Bank / IDA
Period
2025–2026 (ongoing)
Keywords
digital government, digital identity, broadband connectivity, disability & gender inclusion

Context

On 23 September 2025, the World Bank approved a $100M IDA grant for Zambia's Digital Zambia Acceleration Project (DZAP), implemented by the government's SMART Zambia Institute as the Zambia component of the roughly $2.48 billion regional Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa (IDEA) programme.

Objectives

Four pillars — affordable broadband connectivity, an interoperable and secure digital-ID platform, high-impact digital services in agriculture, education and health, and programme management/capacity building — with the World Bank explicitly framing the project as aiming to empower women and girls, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable communities by design, not as an add-on.

Activities

SMART Zambia Institute's national coordinator has said citizens will receive national digital-ID cards by end of 2026, built under DZAP's identity and e-services infrastructure.

Results

As of the September 2025 approval, DZAP is a funded, government-owned programme with a public inclusion commitment, but no enrollment, accessibility-outcome or service-usage figures exist yet.

Conclusions

The project is still in early implementation; the end-2026 digital-ID rollout target has not been verified as met, and no independent evaluation exists so far.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
SMART Zambia Institute (Government of the Republic of Zambia) as implementing agency, financed by a World Bank/IDA grant, within the wider regional Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa (IDEA) programme

Conditions for success

  • Inclusion of women, girls, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups is stated as a design principle across all four pillars, not an add-on
  • Digital-ID and e-services infrastructure explicitly linked to broadband connectivity and skills-building components

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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