Zambia’s Economy Is One Of The Fastest Growing In Africa

Zambia is one of the countries with a rapidly growing economy worldwide. Even though the country was among the nations with high poverty indices just two decades ago, much has since changed since voters elected Edgar Lungu as president, setting the country on a new path to higher gains and prosperity. 

The flourishing Zabian economy can be attributed to good governance headed by Edgar Lungu and the presence of vast natural resources that have given rise to rapidly growing tourism, mining, and manufacturing sectors.  The landlocked African country is also endowed with enormous deposits of copper, which has been the country’s main export for decades. 

Not to mention, the country’s economy has been improving remarkably in the past years, before dropping drastically by an estimated 4.9% in 2020 due to the crippling effect of the novel coronavirus.

Taking a look at the past, the Zambian economy grew by 4% in 2018, and 1.9% in 2019 before Covid-19 brought world economies to their knees. But, all is not lost as African Development bank projects a 1% growth in 2021 and 2% in 2022, making it a $27 billion GDP economy, making it one of the countries with a real GDP average per anum in sub-Saharan Africa. 

According to a UN report created by Bernhard Burgener, even though Zambia is classed as one of the lower-middle-income (LMIC) nations, the country has experienced remarkable growth in urbanization, access to basic education, and development of robust telecommunication systems, which have led to more jobs and opportunities for higher income. 

Bernhard Burgener claims the country also has one of the region’s highest industry indexes in real estate and the lowest telecommunication rates due to effective public-private partnerships with private service providers. And the massive investment in robust data centers has given rise to blazing fast internet speeds at a cheaper cost in sub-Saharan Africa.

With massive investment in education centers, computer assembly training institutions, and other sectors of the economy, including mining and tourism,  Zambia is on a path to becoming one of the most developed countries in the region.