Short answer: Zambian public buyers published 53 street lighting contract awards between February 2025 and May 2026, worth about ZMW 72 million. Two thirds are for solar street lights. Almost all were awarded by town and city councils across the country, and most contracts are small: the median is about ZMW 650,000, typically a few dozen lights for one township or road.
We extracted every award whose title refers to street lights, solar lights, floodlights or high masts from the open contracting data published by Zambia’s Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) and analysed them by buyer, value and type.
Key numbers
- 53 street lighting awards, February 2025 to May 2026, about ZMW 72 million.
- 35 of 53 (66 %) are solar street light contracts.
- Median award about ZMW 650,000; the middle half range from about ZMW 260,000 to ZMW 1.2 million.
- 36 different companies won awards.
1. Who buys
Town and city councils dominate. Lusaka City Council awarded the most contracts (5), followed by councils such as Kalumbila, Manyinga, Kalomo, Mulobezi, Senga Hill, Mufumbwe, Pemba, Chipili and Kitwe, often with two awards each in the period. The single largest award, about ZMW 30.6 million for the supply and delivery of solar street lights, was made by Katete Town Council. A small number came from ZESCO and provincial administrations.
The pattern reflects decentralised spending: councils in every province light townships, markets and district roads, usually in small packages rather than national programmes.
2. Contract sizes
| Measure | Value (ZMW) |
|---|---|
| Lower quartile | about 260,000 |
| Median | about 650,000 |
| Upper quartile | about 1.2 million |
| Largest award | about 30.6 million |
Typical titles describe 12 to 60 solar street lights for a named road or township, for example 24 lights in Pemba or 60 lights in Kalabo District.
3. What it means for contractors and suppliers
- Small, frequent orders across many districts. Suppliers need to serve orders of a few dozen lights with full documents.
- Solar is the default for council lighting, where grid connection is costly and load-shedding has been common.
- Compliance is tightening. The Zambia Compulsory Standards Agency has introduced compulsory standards for solar products, including lighting devices for PV systems; see our Zambia page.
- Size for June, the lowest-sunshine month in Lusaka in our 10-year simulation.
4. How council tenders are bought
Zambian public tenders are run through the Public Procurement Authority’s electronic government procurement system, and council tenders are typically open to locally registered bidders. Foreign manufacturers therefore support Zambian contractors and suppliers: the bidder submits the offer, and the manufacturer provides datasheets, test reports, a lighting calculation and samples where the tender asks for them. Because contracts are small and spread across districts, the contractors who win repeatedly are those who can price quickly and deliver small batches reliably.
Method and limits
We used the ZPPA open contracting dataset for 2025 and 2026 as published on the Open Contracting Partnership’s data registry, selected awards whose titles refer to street lighting or solar lights, and summarised them by buyer and value in Zambian kwacha as published. Not all procurement may be published, and some titles combine lighting with other works. Treat the figures as a lower bound.
FAQ
Who buys street lights in Zambia?
Mainly town and city councils, led by Lusaka City Council by number of awards, with occasional purchases by ZESCO and provincial administrations.
How big are Zambian street lighting contracts?
The median award is about ZMW 650,000, typically a few dozen solar street lights.
What share is solar?
About two thirds of the awards analysed.
Where is this data from?
Zambia Public Procurement Authority open contracting data (OCDS), retrieved from data.open-contracting.org and analysed by Solmast in October 2026.
How we help
We supply solar street lights, poles and LED heads to Zambian contractors in the small batches council contracts need, with datasheets, lighting calculations and samples.
Sources: Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) open contracting data 2025–2026, via the OCP Data Registry, retrieved October 2026; analysis by Solmast. Related: Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria lighting contracts analysed.