By Derrick Silimina

The Lusaka City Council’s revenue collection has skyrocketed to more than K13.9 million in June 2026 from just K61,000 in January 2026, an astronomical surge that has stunned the local authority.

For a sprawling capital city of over three million people, the civic authority had managed to collect a meager K61,000 in local revenues. The coffers were virtually empty, drained by a broken manual system, porous collection points, and systemic revenue leakages.

“After the e-services went live on 26 May, the council collected more than K1 million within four days, ending the month at K1.8 million before recording an unprecedented K13.9 million in June, the first full month under the digital platform,” Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Permanent Secretary for Administration Gabriel Pollen said during a press briefing.

Dr. Pollen attributed this exponential leap to a single, transformative catalyst of 22,000% following the aggressive rollout of the integrated e-Council digitalisation programme.

He stressed that the improved collections are the result of automating local authority revenue systems through the Government Service Bus (GSB)/ZamPortal platform, which has reduced reliance on manual cash-based transactions.

“Before the digital migration, the seven services now onboarded under Lusaka City Council generated K61,000 in January, K627,000 in February, K398,000 in March and K258,000 in April,” he explained.

Dr. Pollen added that the Ministry, working with the Electronic Government Division (Smart Zambia) and the Ministry of Finance and National Planning through the Accountant General’s Office, has now successfully onboarded eight pilot local authorities onto the e-Council platform.

He further stressed that the initiative enables citizens and businesses to pay electronically for services such as property rates, business levies, health permits, building permits, market and bus station fees, among others, while enhancing transparency, accountability and service delivery.

“The government expects the increased revenue to be channelled back into communities through improved local authority service delivery as the nationwide rollout of the digitalisation programme continues.”