Zambia’s Fintech regulation is under scrutiny after the Lusaka Central Business District (CBD) decided to remove mobile money booths to declutter the city centre.

As a result, users, understood to be in their millions, will be unable to transact until the booths are redeployed.

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Gary Nkombo said the decision was made “to bring sanity to the CBD.”

“It should be put on record that this engagement is not only for Lusaka. We want to ask citizens to buy into our agenda of bringing order and sanity. We want to function in a society that is visibly functional,” said Nkombo.

MTN Zambia Mobile Money CEO Komba Malukutila sympathised with mobile money booth owners and said the country is home to over 150 000 mobile money agents, representing the biggest driving force for financial inclusion.

Malukutila said, “We have taken note of the concerns of our customers and in the spirit of continuity amidst this exercise, we have put up the following measures: engage shop owners and other retailers in the Central Business District to sign up MoMo Pay so that customers can pay for goods and services without seeing the need to withdraw funds and sign up as agents to support deposits and withdraws. We shall soon publish a list of retailers in the Lusaka Central Business District from whom our clients can perform mobile money transactions safely, securely and conveniently.”

“As the authorities are working to resolve the matter, we want to thank all mobile money agents for the role they continue to play in advancing the government’s agenda on financial inclusion. We assure agents in Lusaka that we are committed to ensuring that they are assigned a conducive trading environment that guarantees their safety, security and business continuity.”

Statistics from the Bank of Zambia (BOZ) shows that levels of financial inclusion in the country stands at close to 70% driven primarily by mobile money services.