American Chamber of Commerce in Zambia

AmCham Submits white paper on the localisation of data centers to the Minister of Science and Technology

The Chamber submitted a white paper to the Minister of Technology and Science on behalf

of its members which focused on the Localization of Data Centres. On 23rd March 2021, the Zambian parliament enacted the Data protection Act number 3 of 2021(the“DPA”). This was formed to regulate the collection and storage of personal data which includes data that can be used to identify an individual in Zambia, this being their name or identification number. The Act also establishes the office of the Data Protection Commissioner and spells out its functions, provides for regulation of data collectors, processors, and controllers and provides for the rights of data subjects. The main legislations that guided these changes were based on: the Constitution of Zambia, the Banking and Financial Services Act No. 7 of 2017, the ECT Act and the Data Protection Act. This move followed discontentment from members of various businesses as issues were raised.