As Zambia enters the election season, presidential candidates are unveiling their visions for the country’s future, rightly focusing on issues such as fiscal policies, agriculture, mining, education, health, infrastructure – all of which are dominating public debate.

Elections are won and lost on service delivery, jobs and cost of living — and all three are directly determined by how well government spends its money through procurement. So, when candidates talk about hospitals, roads and employment, they are talking about procurement whether they know it or not.

Yet, procurement – one of most the powerful engines of national development – is often ignored during campaigning although it deserves a prominent place in every presidential manifesto because it is the foundation of economic growth.

Every kwacha the Government spends has the power to build industries, create jobs, empower local businesses, and improve public services. Yet Zambia continues to treat procurement primarily as a financial compliance exercise instead of what it truly is – a strategic instrument for national development.

This is why the introduction of a National Procurement Policy is no longer just another policy reform; it is a national imperative. This long-awaited policy is not an administrative function and delaying it must be seen as delaying economic transformation, industrial growth, job creation, and improved public service delivery.

Bigger picture

Procurement – often singularly seen as obtaining three quotes, a subset of finance, or a clerical administrative function –  plays a far more strategic role in driving national development than is generally acknowledged.

While procurement undoubtedly supports sound public financial management by ensuring value for money, budget discipline, transparency, accountability, and the prudent use of taxpayers’ resources, this is just one part of its broader purpose.

Across the world, modern procurement has evolved into a powerful development tool. Governments use procurement to stimulate industrialisation, promote local content, create employment, empower youth- and women-owned enterprises, strengthen small and medium-sized businesses, and accelerate infrastructure development. Procurement also advances sustainability, encourages ethical sourcing, and promotes equitable economic opportunities across all regions of a country.

Export push

As an example, with mining as a strategic growth sector, procurement can help ensure that increased production of copper, from about 800,000 tonnes to three million tonnes by 2031, moves through the supply chain to its destination in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.

Equally, it can aid mines in receiving necessary supplies efficiently while also cutting back on costs.

Procurement, which sits at the heart of the production process, accounts for about 60% of the cost of producing a tonne of copper, which requires Zambia’s major mining companies – Kansanshi Mine, FQM, Mopani Copper Mines, Konkola Copper Mines, Lumwana, and Mingomba Copper Mine – to invest heavily in procurement and stores management systems.

A National Procurement Policy would help incentivise miners and, as a direct result, aid government in meeting its target by standardising procurement processes across the sector, mandating local content in a structured and predictable way, aggregating purchasing power to reduce input costs, and creating the transparency mechanisms that give investors and financiers the confidence to commit capital at scale.

Simultaneously, such a policy will help effectively implement the Local Content Statutory Instrument by creating a clear compliance framework that mining companies and their suppliers can plan around while also establishing a verified database of qualifying local suppliers.

This will enable measurable targets for local participation at each stage of the supply chain, supported by the oversight mechanisms needed to enforce obligations rather than leaving them open to interpretation.

The combination of the policy and the Local Content Statutory Instrument means that success can be measured by more than budget savings and clean audit reports. It can also be measured by the number of jobs created, industries strengthened, local businesses empowered, and improvements in public services such as roads, hospitals, schools, water systems, and energy infrastructure.

A National Procurement Policy provides the strategic direction needed to align procurement with Zambia’s national development agenda — enabling it to contribute meaningfully to economic growth, industrialisation, local enterprise development and effective service delivery, while strengthening governance and accountability.

As political parties prepare their manifestos ahead of the 2026 General Elections, they should commit to introducing and implementing a comprehensive National Procurement Policy. Every year of delay represents missed opportunities for industrial growth, employment creation and improved public services. Zambia cannot afford to wait.

Source: The African Supply Chain Confederation (ASCON)