AI regulation in Zambia (2026)

Published by the Ministry of Technology and Science in February 2025, the strategy sets six pillars: policy & regulation, human capital development, infrastructure & data ecosystems, research & innovation, sectoral integration, and international partnerships. It is a non-binding roadmap, not legislation.

On 24 April 2025, Cabinet approved a bill to repeal the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 in order to expand Zambia's legal framework to explicitly cover AI, machine learning, and data analytics. The bill had not been enacted into law as of mid-2026.

The Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 entered active enforcement in March 2025 and currently provides the closest binding framework touching AI-adjacent issues such as automated processing of personal data. The Data Commissioner's Office oversees compliance.

The AI Strategy calls for a National AI Council and sector-specific Technical Working Groups to oversee AI governance, working alongside ZICTA. An Emerging Technologies Centre of Excellence is also proposed. None of these bodies had been formally established by statute as of early 2026.

The strategy includes a Government Regulatory Sandbox to allow digital innovations, including AI applications, to be developed and tested in a controlled environment, reflecting an innovation-first posture over precautionary prohibition.

OECD.AI lists Zambia's National AI Strategy as its primary AI policy initiative, confirming no binding AI law is recorded. Zambia is among a small number of sub-Saharan African states with a formal national AI strategy.