In Kemet, the river kept the accounts.Every year, when the star Sopdet rose before dawn, the Iteru began to swell. At Abu, on the island below the cataracts, priests descended a stone stairway into the water to read the marks cut into its walls.The instrument was called the Nilometer.It did not measure the river's beauty. It measured its promise.A high flood meant black silt on the fields, full granaries and a prosperous harvest. A low flood meant cracked earth, thin cattle and less grain to collect. The fortunes of the kingdom, and the revenues of its treasury, depended on the water.That was the oldest rule in Kemet:You assess the harvest by the river, not by the hopes of the treasury. <h2>The Dream</h2>That year, Pharaoh dreamed.He stood on the riverbank and watched seven fat cows emerge from the water to graze among the reeds. Behind them came seven lean cows, their ribs showing like the ridges of a dry field.He awoke troubled and summoned the Priests of the Sky.They no longer needed a prisoner to interpret dreams. They had instruments, rainfall records and generations of observations."The fat cows have already come, Great House," they said. "The granaries are fuller than in living memory. The Overseer of the Granaries planned to purchase one million measures of grain this year. He bought 2,743,393.""And the lean cows?""They are the Child of the Warm Sea. When the distant waters grow warm, the rains of Kemet fail. The Child comes next season."At the beginning of the year, the court had promised a six-cubit flood. The previous year's mark had been 5.3. But the priests had returned from Abu with a different reading.NILOMETER: 4.9 CUBITS.Lower than last year. Lower than promised.Not a famine. But no longer a feast. <h2>The Scroll of the Two Treasuries</h2>Pharaoh summoned his court to hear the scroll for the coming year.It was read by Nebamun, Overseer of the Two Treasuries, a careful man who had spent years untangling the debts of an earlier reign.The scroll bore the title:Grow Kemet: From Stabilisation to Unlocking Opportunities, Creating Work and Improving Livelihoods for All.It was the largest scroll ever read in the hall: 284.8 billion deben, an eighth more than the year before.And much of it was good news.When the previous reign defaulted, merchants from across the Great Green had come to collect. At the worst point, 45 of every 100 deben the court spent went towards servicing its debts.Now the figure stood at 23.7 of every 100.Not long ago, Kemet could finance barely three-fifths of its own expenditure. Now 82 of every 100 deben would come from its own fields, mines and markets.The tax-gatherers had collected 98, then 104, then 101 parts of every hundred they were asked to deliver. The deficit, which had swollen to 5.9 parts in the year now ending, was to fall to three.The courtiers applauded. They were right to.Then Nebamun read the tax assessment.The applause stopped.Company tax: from 30.1 billion to 42.7 billion deben. An increase of almost two-fifths.The tax on wages: up by a tenth.The tax on every sale in the market: from 16 parts in every hundred to 16 and a half.An old scribe at the back leaned towards his neighbour."The Nilometer says the river is lower," he whispered. "Yet the scroll expects a larger harvest of taxes. One of them is wrong.""Or perhaps both can be true," replied his neighbour. "The mines are deep, and copper does not care about rain."The old scribe was not convinced. He remembered another scroll. <h2>The Seer from Beyond the River</h2>Word of the new scroll crossed the Great Green and reached the counting houses of the bondholders.They had been burned once. They had no intention of being burned again.So they summoned Bilamun, a seer from beyond the river who read treasuries as priests read entrails. They paid him handsomely and gave him a simple instruction."Go to Kemet. Curse the scroll. Tell the world its numbers are sand."Bilamun mounted his she-donkey and travelled to a high place overlooking Pharaoh's treasury. He opened his mouth to curse.He blessed instead."How shall I curse what the gods have not cursed?" he said. "The old debts have been restructured. The tax-gatherers deliver what they promise. The granaries are full."He tried again from a second high place."The dole for the poorest households rises by more than a third, to 10.36 billion deben, reaching more than 1.6 million households. And Kemet now finances almost all of it from its own treasury. The foreign donors once gave 910 million; now they give 129 million. Pharaoh's contribution rises from 6.7 billion to 10.2 billion."From a third high place, he continued:"A new house of skills has been built, and the trades receive 852.7 million deben, three-fifths more than last year. The constituency councils receive 9.05 billion, nearly half as much again. Pharaoh has even insured the land against drought."The bondholders' messengers tore their robes."We paid you to curse!""I can only speak what I see," replied Bilamun.But on the road home, his donkey stopped. <h2>The Donkey Sees</h2>The first time, she stopped at the stairway of the Nilometer and refused to pass.Bilamun struck her. He could not see what she saw: a sword standing in the water at the 4.9-cubit mark, where a lower flood met a higher tax assessment.The second time, she stopped beside a storehouse. Its door stood open. Inside, there was nothing.It had once held the Food Security Pack: seed and fertiliser worth 1.51 billion deben, intended for 320,000 poor farmers.The new scroll contained no allocation for it.Perhaps the seed had been moved to another storehouse. Perhaps not. The scroll did not say.Next door stood the great storehouse of farm inputs. It contained 9.04 billion deben, slightly less than the previous year. Once rising prices were considered, it would buy even less.The third time, the donkey lay down before a granary whose doors were sealed.Bilamun beat her again. This time, the donkey spoke."Am I not the one who carries the load?" she asked. "I carry the wage tax and the market tax. I carry the grain to the granary. And I know what the scribes do not always say aloud."Last year, of every hundred deben the court promised, only 86 reached the road. Of every hundred promised for building, only 72 were spent."And 67 billion deben owed to Pharaoh sit uncollected in the books. Almost exactly what he pays his creditors in a year."ARREARS: 67.0. DEBT SERVICE: 67.6."A full granary feeds no one," said the donkey, "if the door stays shut."Then Bilamun saw the sword. <h2>The Petition of Khunanup</h2>The following morning, a peasant appeared at the palace gate.His name was Khunanup, of the Salt Field. Every scribe knew the type: upright, stubborn and unfortunately eloquent.He had paid every due Pharaoh had ever demanded. During the last great drought, he lost his maize, his goats and most of his savings. Still, he paid.He had not come to curse Pharaoh. He had come to be heard.Three scribes from the Treasury were sent to receive his petition.The first was the Scribe of Taxes."The scroll is fair," he said. "Anyone earning 20,000 deben or less pays not one grain more than last year. Only the rich are asked for more.""Not one grain more than last year?" Khunanup replied. "My son earns 10,000 deben in the city. In the reign of the old measures, that wage paid no tax. Today he pays 13 of every 100. The bands do not move, but prices do. He pays more each year simply for standing still."The second was the Scribe of Granaries."Pharaoh has not forgotten the poor," he said. "The dole rises by more than a third.""I am grateful," Khunanup replied, and he meant it. "But the dole is for households that cannot work. I can work. I am a farmer. I do not want a dole; I want seed."The seed pack is gone from the scroll, and the farm inputs are no larger than last year. In a drought year, seed is what separates a lean season from one we can survive."The third was the Scribe of Accounts."Your daughter can study," he said. "Pharaoh has built an entire new house of skills.""He has," Khunanup replied. "There are 1.95 billion deben for loans to scholars at the great universities, and 1.4 million for bursaries at the trades schools. My daughter wants to become an electrician. Kemet needs electricians. Yet her line in the scroll is less than a thousandth the size of the scholars' allocation."The scribes exchanged glances.They had answers, as scribes always do. The constituency councils also offered bursaries. The skills fund was substantial. The new house was only in its first year.All of it was true.Khunanup bowed."I do not say the scroll is wicked," he said. "I say it was written in a fat year, and it will be read in a lean one." <h2>What Zaphenath-Paneah Knew</h2>That night, Pharaoh sent for the oldest scroll in the royal archive.It contained the counsel of Zaphenath-Paneah, the foreign-born vizier who had once interpreted another Pharaoh's dream of fat cows and lean ones.His advice had been simple.In the years of plenty, take a fifth of the harvest and store it. When the years of want arrive, open the granaries.Pharaoh read it twice.His Kemet had performed the first part well. The granaries were full. More than 2.7 million measures of grain had been purchased, and 9.57 billion deben had been set aside to operate the granary agency and pay for what it had already bought.But Zaphenath-Paneah had raised his levy during the fat years, not the lean. And he had opened the granaries to those who needed them, not only those whose names already appeared on a list.Pharaoh read further, beyond the passage most courtiers remembered.The old scroll recorded what happened when the lean years persisted. First, the people spent their silver. Then they sold their cattle, then their land, and finally themselves, until all of Kemet belonged to the throne.The granary had saved them. It had also come to own them.It was not simply a story about cruelty. It was a story about timing.Relief that arrives early is a safety net. Relief that arrives late becomes a debt. <h2>The Rising</h2>In the season of Akhet, the priests descended the stairway at Abu once more.The river had begun to rise. No one yet knew how far.The scroll would go before the Assembly, where representatives of the nomes would debate it line by line, as they should.Bilamun had blessed it. His donkey had warned against it. Khunanup had asked only that it be judged in the season in which it would be lived.Both could be true.A budget can restore confidence in the treasury and still leave a farmer without seed. It can improve the debt position while failing to collect billions owed to the state. It can promise more revenue without necessarily creating the economic activity needed to sustain it.Pharaoh could raise the tax. He could fill the granaries. He could even insure the land.But the question remained: would the harvest be sufficient to deliver what the scroll promised?Pharaoh stood at the top of the stairway and watched the water creep towards the 4.9-cubit mark.In Kemet, the river kept the accounts.Pharaoh only kept the scroll. <h2>Behind the fable</h2>The story is an allegorical reading of Zambia's 2027 National Budget.Kemet represents Zambia; Pharaoh represents the Government; Nebamun, Overseer of the Two Treasuries, represents the Minister of Finance and National Planning; Grow Kemet represents the Grow Zambia Agenda; and the Assembly represents the National Assembly.One deben represents one kwacha.<h3>The Nilometer and the harvest</h3><ul><li>4.9 cubits: The 2027 GDP growth forecast of 4.9%, against 6% previously projected. The 2026 growth projection is 5.3%.</li><li>The Child of the Warm Sea: El Niño and the anticipated drought during the 2026/2027 rainy season.</li><li>The fat cows: The Food Reserve Agency purchased 2,743,393 tonnes of maize by June 2026, against a target of one million tonnes. The National Food Reserves allocation rises from K2.22 billion to K9.57 billion.</li></ul><h3>The tax assessment</h3><ul><li>Company income tax: K30.06 billion to K42.70 billion, with mining contributing K23.3 billion.</li><li>PAYE: K31.78 billion to K35.37 billion.</li><li>VAT: 16% to 16.5%.</li></ul><h3>Bilamun's blessings</h3><ul><li>Debt service falls from 45.5% of expenditure in 2022 to 23.7%.</li><li>Domestic revenue rises from 58.7% of the Budget in 2021 to 82.1%.</li><li>ZRA collected 98%, 104% and 101% of its targets between 2023 and 2025.</li><li>The fiscal deficit is projected to fall from 5.9% to 3% of GDP.</li><li>Social Cash Transfer rises from K7.65 billion to K10.36 billion, targeting 1,639,034 households.</li><li>Skills Development allocation rises from K531.9 million to K852.7 million.</li><li>Constituency Development Fund rises from K6.25 billion to K9.05 billion.</li><li>Government allocates K21.5 million for drought insurance premiums.</li></ul><h3>The donkey's warnings</h3><ul><li>Food Security Pack: K1.51 billion for 320,000 beneficiaries in 2026, with no allocation identified in the 2027 Budget.</li><li>Farmer Input Support Programme: K9.15 billion to K9.04 billion.</li><li>FY2025 expenditure execution: 86% of the final budget was paid; capital expenditure execution was 72%.</li><li>K67 billion in tax arrears recorded by the Auditor-General, against K67.6 billion in annual debt service.</li></ul><h3>Khunanup's petition</h3><ul><li>PAYE bands remain unchanged for salaries of K20,000 or less.</li><li>A K10,000 salary, expressed in 2027 prices, paid no PAYE in 2014 but faces an effective PAYE rate of 13.3% in 2027.</li><li>Social Cash Transfer targets incapacitated households.</li><li>TEVET bursaries: K1.4 million, against K1.95 billion for student loans and scholarships.</li></ul><h3>The historical references</h3><ul><li>Khunanup: The protagonist of the Middle Kingdom Egyptian text Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, adapted here as a petitioner.</li><li>Bilamun: An allusion to Balaam in Numbers 22–24.</li><li>Zaphenath-Paneah: Joseph's Egyptian name in Genesis 41:45. The advice to store grain appears in Genesis 41:34–36; the subsequent famine and its consequences are described in Genesis 47:13–21.</li><li>Nebamun: A historical Egyptian name associated with scribal and administrative traditions.</li></ul>Sources: KSJ Budget Analysis: The 2027 Budget (8 November 2026); Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure 2027 (Yellow Book), Heads 19, 20, 45, 49, 52 and 89, and revenue estimates; Reuters and Bloomberg reporting on the 2027 growth forecast (October–November 2026).

The Nilometer

The 2027 Budget plans K284.8bn of spending, +12.5% on 2026, with K41.9bn borrowed and 23.7% going on debt service. What it spends, how it is paid for, and how past budgets held up.

KSJ Budget Analysis: The 2027 Budget

Zambia 2027 Budget Analysis

Zambia's trade data says Switzerland is our biggest copper customer. Switzerland's own trade data tells a very different story. The difference points to a problem deeper than a statistical mismatch.Copper is Zambia's economic lifeline.In 2024, the country earned about US$7.6 billion from copper, accounting for roughly two-thirds of total exports. For an economy this dependent on one commodity, knowing where that copper ends up is more than a statistical exercise. It matters for trade policy, taxation and understanding where value is being created.Yet Zambia's official trade data appears to put much of its copper in an unlikely place: Switzerland.According to Zambia's records, the country exported US$4.66 billion of copper to Switzerland in 2024, equivalent to about 496,000 tonnes and 61% of total copper exports. The previous year, Zambia recorded US$4.16 billion going to Switzerland.That makes Switzerland, on paper, Zambia's largest copper market by a considerable margin.There is one problem.Switzerland's own trade statistics barely show the copper.<h3>The copper goes somewhere else</h3>UN Comtrade data provides a useful way of looking at the discrepancy because countries report both their exports and imports.China, for example, reported importing about 560,000 tonnes of Zambian copper in 2024. Zambia recorded only about 279,000 tonnes going directly to China.India reported around US$1.7 billion, or 191,000 tonnes, of copper imports from Zambia. Zambia's records show almost none going directly to India.The pattern is similar in 2023.When the differences are added up, the additional copper reported by China and India is remarkably close to the volume Zambia attributes to Switzerland.In 2024, the China-India discrepancy is roughly 472,000 tonnes, compared with the 496,000 tonnes Zambia records as exports to Switzerland.In 2023, the corresponding figures are about 517,000 tonnes and 503,000 tonnes.That does not mean copper disappeared.It points to something more familiar in global commodity markets: the difference between who buys a commodity and where the commodity physically goes.<h3>Geneva on the invoice, China at the smelter</h3>Switzerland is home to some of the world's largest commodity trading companies.A Zambian copper producer can sell its copper to a trading company incorporated in Switzerland. The trader can then sell that copper to a smelter in China or India.The copper may travel directly from Zambia to Asia.The commercial transaction, however, may pass through Switzerland.For trade statistics, those are two different things.Zambia's records appear to capture the commercial counterparty. China's and India's statistics capture the physical origin of the goods.So the copper can be Swiss on the invoice without ever becoming Swiss at the border.That distinction matters.<h3>Why the numbers matter</h3>It would be easy to dismiss the issue as a technical problem with trade statistics. After all, the broad numbers are not wildly different.Partner countries collectively report roughly US$7.2 billion of copper imports from Zambia, compared with Zambia's approximately US$7.6 billion of exports.The issue is not necessarily that billions of dollars of copper are missing.It is that our data may be telling us the wrong story about where our copper market actually is.There are at least three consequences.First, it distorts our picture of Zambia's markets.If most of the copper physically ends up in China and India, but our trade statistics identify Switzerland as the destination, policymakers are looking at an inaccurate map of Zambia's export economy.That affects everything from trade negotiations to market analysis.Second, it makes the pricing chain harder to see.A mining company may sell copper to a commodity trader, which subsequently sells it to a final buyer.There can therefore be a difference between the price at which the copper leaves Zambia and the price at which it is ultimately sold to the smelter.That does not automatically mean there has been wrongdoing. But where related companies are involved, the structure can create transfer-pricing and tax risks that deserve scrutiny.For Zambia, the question is whether the price declared at export properly reflects the value of the transaction.Third, it weakens one of the simplest tools available to tax and customs authorities: mirror statistics.Mirror statistics compare what Zambia says it exported with what its trading partners say they imported.They are particularly useful for identifying unusual gaps.But the exercise becomes much harder when Zambia records Switzerland as the destination while China records Zambia as the origin.A discrepancy can then have several explanations: differences in statistical methodology, intermediary trading arrangements, timing, valuation — or potentially something more serious.The data alone does not tell us which.<h3>So what should Zambia do?</h3>The answer is not to stop selling copper through international trading houses.Commodity trading is a normal part of the global copper market.The better approach is to make the transaction chain more visible.Record both the buyer and the destination. Export documentation should distinguish between the country of the commercial buyer and the final destination of the physical shipment.Track merchanting arrangements. Zambia should have a clearer statistical picture of commodities sold through intermediary trading hubs, particularly where the goods never enter the intermediary country.Strengthen price verification. ZRA can compare declared export prices with international benchmarks such as the London Metal Exchange and, where possible, the prices recorded by final importing countries.Build stronger data links with major buyers. Regular information exchange with China, India and other major copper destinations would allow authorities to compare shipments rather than relying primarily on annual trade totals.None of this proves that Zambia is losing tax revenue or that commodity traders are doing anything improper.The more immediate finding is simpler: Zambia's trade statistics do not always tell us where its copper physically ends up.And for a country where copper accounts for roughly two-thirds of exports, that is not a small statistical detail.Zambia mines the copper.We should know where it goes.Source: UN Comtrade, 2023–2024. Zambia's exports are valued on an FOB basis, while partner-country imports are generally recorded on a CIF basis. Copper analysis covers HS Chapter 74 and copper ores and concentrates under HS 2603.

The Zambian copper that Switzerland never saw

For a business that has accumulated years of unpaid tax, the size of the problem is not always the tax itself.Penalties and interest can turn an old tax liability into a much larger bill, making it increasingly difficult for a business to bring its tax affairs back into order.The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has now opened a temporary window for taxpayers facing such liabilities to do exactly that.The Extended Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (EVDS), which began on 17 September 2026 and runs until 31 December 2026, offers eligible taxpayers a 100 percent waiver of accrued penalties and interest when the underlying principal tax due is settled.That distinction matters.The scheme does not erase the principal tax obligation. Instead, it removes the accumulated penalties and interest attached to it, potentially reducing the cost of bringing an outstanding tax account into compliance. <h2>A second chance, but not a tax holiday</h2>The government has been careful to describe the initiative as a compliance intervention rather than a reward for failing to pay taxes.At the launch in Lusaka, Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said the scheme is intended to give eligible taxpayers a structured opportunity to correct past omissions and return to consistent compliance.That makes the EVDS different in emphasis from simply declaring another tax amnesty.The objective is not only to collect old liabilities. It is also to bring taxpayers who have fallen behind back into the regular tax system.For ZRA, this is part of the wider challenge of improving voluntary compliance and domestic resource mobilisation. Commissioner General Dingani Banda said non-compliance remains a challenge in tax administration. <h2>The opportunity is particularly relevant to small businesses</h2>For a small company, an old tax problem can easily become an administrative problem before it becomes a financial one.A business may have changed accountants, lost records, failed to file certain returns, misunderstood an obligation or simply accumulated arrears during a difficult period.Years later, the business may discover that what started as a relatively manageable tax obligation has grown because of penalties and interest.The EVDS creates a defined period in which eligible taxpayers can examine those liabilities and determine what it would take to settle the principal.That makes the first step less about finding money and more about finding out what the business actually owes. <h2>The deadline changes the calculation</h2>The scheme runs for just over three months.That means businesses with outstanding tax issues should not treat December as the starting point for investigation.They need time to reconcile their records, establish the principal liability, verify their position with ZRA and, where necessary, obtain professional tax advice.This is particularly important for businesses whose records stretch across several tax years.Waiting until the final weeks could turn what should be a compliance exercise into another administrative scramble. <h2>Why this matters beyond individual taxpayers</h2>Tax compliance is ultimately connected to the government's ability to finance public expenditure.ZRA's 2025 annual report recorded gross revenue collections of K185.6 billion, with net collections of K160.7 billion after refunds.That puts the EVDS into a broader fiscal context.Government needs revenue, while businesses need a tax system in which outstanding obligations can be identified and resolved without old penalties making compliance progressively harder.There is therefore a mutual interest in bringing dormant or irregular tax accounts back into the formal system.But the longer-term test will be what happens after the waiver expires. <h2>The real test begins in January</h2>A successful voluntary disclosure programme should not simply produce a short-term increase in tax payments.It should leave more taxpayers with accurate records, up-to-date filings and a clearer understanding of their obligations.That is why the period after 31 December 2026 may ultimately be more important than the waiver itself.If businesses use the window to settle principal liabilities and then remain compliant, the scheme becomes part of a broader shift towards regular tax administration.If taxpayers simply wait for another waiver, the underlying compliance problem remains.For businesses with outstanding liabilities, however, the immediate issue is simpler.There is now a defined window to review the books, establish what is owed and determine whether the EVDS can help remove the penalties and interest that have accumulated around the principal tax.The opportunity has a deadline.31 December 2026.

ZRA Opens a Window for Taxpayers to Clean Up Outstanding Liabilities

A small business owner receives a WhatsApp message from what appears to be a regular supplier. The supplier's number looks familiar. The message asks for a payment to a new bank account.The owner pays.Only later does someone call the supplier and discover that their WhatsApp account had been compromised.There was no sophisticated cyberattack. No server was breached. No specialist hacker had to break through layers of corporate security.Someone simply gained control of an account.For Zambia's small businesses, this is an important distinction. Cybersecurity is often discussed as if it belongs to banks, telecommunications companies and large corporations. But as businesses move their banking, accounting, sales and customer communication onto phones and cloud services, the risks increasingly sit inside ordinary business operations. <h2>Your WhatsApp account is part of the business</h2>For many Zambian businesses, WhatsApp is not just a messaging application.It is a sales channel, customer-service desk, order book and sometimes an informal record of transactions.That makes a compromised WhatsApp account commercially valuable.Businesses should enable two-step verification, protect the email account associated with recovery and avoid sharing verification codes. Staff should also be cautious when someone suddenly asks for money, confidential information or a change in payment details.Most importantly, unusual requests should be verified through a second channel.A phone call can sometimes prevent a very expensive WhatsApp conversation. <h2>Protect the money first</h2>A business may have only a few digital systems, but those systems can connect directly to money.Banking platforms, mobile-money accounts, payment gateways and email accounts that receive financial notifications should receive stronger protection than an ordinary social-media account.Multi-factor authentication should be enabled wherever available. Banking credentials should never be shared between employees, and businesses should establish clear approval procedures for significant payments.A request to change a supplier's bank details should not be treated as routine administration.It should trigger verification. <h2>ZRA documents are business data too</h2>Small businesses routinely exchange sensitive documents containing TPINs, tax information, identification details, invoices, payroll records and financial statements.These documents can end up scattered across WhatsApp chats, personal email accounts, USB drives and office computers.That creates a different kind of cybersecurity problem: the business may not know where its own sensitive information is.Companies should maintain a basic record of where important financial and tax documents are stored, who can access them and how they are backed up.Not every employee needs access to everything. <h2>Backups matter when the laptop fails</h2>Cybersecurity is not only about stopping criminals.A laptop can be stolen. A hard drive can fail. A phone can be lost. A ransomware infection can make files inaccessible.For a small business, losing customer records, accounting files or years of documents can be more damaging than losing the hardware itself.Important files should therefore be backed up regularly, with at least one backup kept separately from the main device.A simple test is useful:If the office laptop disappeared tonight, could the business continue tomorrow?If the answer is no, the problem is bigger than cybersecurity. It is business continuity. <h2>The employee is part of the security system</h2>Many attacks begin with an ordinary message.A fake invoice. A suspicious link. A request to reset a password. A message supposedly from the boss asking an employee to make an urgent payment.Technology can identify some of these threats, but employees still make many of the final decisions.Small businesses should establish simple rules: <ul><li>Never share passwords or verification codes.</li><li>Verify unexpected payment requests by phone.</li><li>Do not open suspicious attachments.</li><li>Be cautious about links asking you to log into an account.</li><li>Report suspicious messages rather than hiding mistakes.</li><li>Remove access when an employee leaves the business.</li></ul>The objective should not be to frighten employees into avoiding technology. It should be to make good security behaviour part of normal business practice. <h2>Do not overlook the office computer</h2>Many small businesses still depend heavily on one or two computers.Those machines should have automatic updates enabled, screen locks, reputable security software and separate user accounts where appropriate.Old computers and phones should also be securely wiped before being sold, discarded or given to someone else.A device does not stop containing business information simply because the business has stopped using it. <h2>Cybersecurity does not have to start with expensive software</h2>For a small Zambian business operating on a limited budget, cybersecurity can appear expensive.The first investments, however, do not necessarily require a large IT contract.Start with the basics:Strong passwords. Multi-factor authentication. Regular backups. Software updates. Limited access. Employee awareness. Payment verification.Then build from there.As the business grows, it can introduce stronger controls, professional security assessments, device management, encryption and formal incident-response procedures.The important thing is to start before the first serious incident. <h2>The bigger issue is trust</h2>A cybersecurity incident does more than disrupt a computer.It can delay salaries, expose customer information, interrupt sales and damage relationships with suppliers. For a small company that depends heavily on reputation, the financial consequences can extend well beyond the original loss.Zambia's digital economy will continue to expand. More businesses will use online banking, mobile payments, cloud software, digital tax systems, social commerce and remote services.That creates opportunities for smaller companies to operate more efficiently.But digitalisation also changes what it means to protect a business.Cybersecurity is no longer simply an IT department's responsibility.For a small business, it is part of protecting the money, records, customers and reputation that keep the business alive.

Cybersecurity for Small Businesses: The Risks Are Closer Than You Think

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The Nilometer

Zambia 2027 Budget Analysis

The Zambian copper that Switzerland never saw

ZRA Opens a Window for Taxpayers to Clean Up Outstanding Liabilities

Cybersecurity for Small Businesses: The Risks Are Closer Than You Think