Infrastructure development is one of the government’s priority areas and is upheld in both the Sixth National Development Plan and the National Vision 2030. To cover the infrastructure shortage and to improve access to a quality and affordable infrastructure service, the country intends to facilitate PPP projects across industries that include roads, railways, boarder support infrastructure, energy, real estate and housing, agricultural services, health and airports.

In 2008, the Zambian government approved a policy framework for the implementation of PPPs covering stakeholder roles, protection of public interest, value for money and service quality. Following the policy pronouncement in 2009, the parliament in August 2009 passed the PPP Act No. 14 of 2009.

In 2013, the government decided to subsume the PPP Unit under the Zambia Development Agency. The Agency is responsible for identifying and packaging projects to promote them to investors. It is also involved in the monitoring of PPPs, while the PPP Office coordinates and evaluates projects. In addition, an Industrial Development Commission was formed.

Although several PPP projects were signed before the enactment of the PPP Act, most of them failed and the lack of a solid PPP framework was seen as the key driver of this failure.

In August 2016, the government reached an important milestone signing the first PPP contract since the PPP Act was introduced, the Kaluba-Mwenda road PPP project, which has a total investment of $180 million. Tenders to seek private developers for several roads and railways across the country and COMESA’s Lusaka Headquarters facilities have also been launched during the last two years.