Zambia: Smart Zambia Systems Development and Support Director Luke Mate says the government has launched 280 digital services, and they are available on the Government Service Bus (GSB).
Mate says GSB is one of the systems the government uses to achieve its digitization agenda, making it a huge investment.
When he officiated at the official opening of the Smart Zambia capacity building workshop for Information Technology developers in Lusaka, Mate stated that the workshop is an assurance that the investment will be sustained to make Zambia a digitalized country.
He added that the trained team is expected to provide solutions to the demanding problems by the government.
“We are looking at building local capacity. We cannot afford to be in a space where all our solutions as a government are solutions that are not fully equipped. We are looking for solutions developers in the country, and that is you,” he explained.
He challenged the participants to be innovative and to be open minded to learn new things beyond what they are being taught by developers.
Speaking at the same event, Ministry of Finance Information and Communication Technology Director and Technical Lead for the GSB Project, Beaton Sibulowa, said Smart Zambia has allowed 1.6 million transactions in the GSB Bus and has collected Two Billion Kwacha in digital money.
Sibulowa stated that 31 institutions have since been digitalized, making their working environment more conducive from paper based to digital.
He further noted that Smart Zambia has managed to digitize and connect all mobile banking services and has plans to connect 40 non-banking financial institutions that the Bank of Zambia regulates in the next two years.
He explained that the essence of the GSB is to bring digitized government services closer to the people by making Zambia a digitalized country. Meanwhile, Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) Systems Support Director, Harrison Chapu said ZRA relies much on data in order for them to collect revenue.
Mr Chapu said the Authority has targeted K135 Billion to be collected as revenue in 2024, hence the need for all major institutions to be digitized.
He added that the expectation of ZRA is that government institutions do not work in silos but should have systems that are well coordinated, thereby increasing compliance among citizens and institutions.
The capacity building workshop is expected to run for 4 weeks and will be conducted quarterly every year.