THE Mobile Money Business Association of Zambia has raised concern over persistent network disruptions, warning that the glitches are severely affecting their businesses and shaking consumer confidence in digital financial services.
For sometime, network has been a challenge in the country, with many failing to access calls, send messages and use mobile money services.
Airtel, the country’s biggest network provider boasting of millions in subscribers, is one of the networks that has fingered to have failed its users, with its system struggling to deliver reliable service and doing little justice to its large customer base.
Association President Pamfred Hasweka said the situation has become critical.
“Customers go to booths to withdraw money, but confirmation messages often don’t appear. People wait for hours, tempers flare, and confidence in mobile money is fading fast. Agents are also at risk of fraud because the system fails to notify transactions properly. This makes running our businesses increasingly difficult,” Hasweka explained to #Kalemba in an interview.
He stated that the volume of agent facilitated transactions is dropping, hitting earnings hard.
“We rely on these transactions for commissions. When the network fails, income fails and some customers even revert to cash. This threatens the entire push for a digital economy in Zambia,” he stated.
While overall mobile money transaction figures show growth of over K200 billion in value and thousands of transactions daily, Hasweka stated that much of this comes from airtime or subscription payments, not agent services.
According to him, the real impact is on the ground, where agents are struggling to keep up.
He further called on government and telecom operators to fix the system urgently.
“Without reliable networks, trust will vanish and Zambia’s digital financial future will be at risk,” added Hasweka.
By Sharon Zulu
Kalemba November 25, 2025
