To attain middle-income status by 2030 Zambia will need to effectively implement its subsequent development plans, including the current one -- the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP). Implementing the development programs in the 8NDP will require significant resources, and given the recent global developments, domestic resources will be crucial.

However, Zambia’s domestic revenue as a share of its gross domestic product (GDP) stagnated over 2010-2020, lagging behind its peers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and its national targets. The recent global events have also exposed Zambia’s vulnerability to external shocks, questioning its reliance on external financing and elevating the domestic resource mobilization (DRM) dialogue.

Given the recent economic dislocations Zambia needs to heighten its resource mobilization efforts to provide some economic relief to populations that have been hard hit by the global economic disruptions. Unfortunately, Zambia’s DRM record remains poor. Not only has Zambia been missing its national targets as a share of GDP, but the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio also averaged 14.9 percent, well below the regional average of 20.2 percent from 2002 to 2021.

Report by the African Development Bank