Motor Insurance in Zambia (2026): What the Law Actually Requires, and Why "Act Only" Leaves You Exposed

The law, in one sentence

Section 86(1) of the Road Traffic Act No. 11 of 2002 says it plainly:

"No person shall use or cause or permit any person to use a motor vehicle or trailer on a road unless there is in force in relation to the use of such vehicle or trailer by that person or that other person, as the case may be, such a policy of insurance or such a security in respect of third party risks as complies with the requirements of this Part."

That is the whole obligation. Not the owner — the user. If you lend your car to a cousin and the policy does not cover them driving it, the offence is live the moment the wheels move.

The penalty sits in section 86(2). A first offence carries a fine of up to three thousand penalty units or imprisonment for up to twelve months. A second or subsequent offence carries up to seven thousand five hundred penalty units or twelve months, or both.

Penalty units are converted to kwacha by statutory instrument. The most recent change we can source is Statutory Instrument No. 25 of 2024, which raised both the fee unit and the penalty unit from thirty ngwee to forty ngwee (K0.40), effective 26 April 2024. At that value:

Two honest caveats. First, the unit value is revised by statutory instrument and can change without much publicity — check the current figure before relying on the kwacha column. Second, these are maximum fines a court may impose, not a fixed roadside charge.

One point worth settling, because it comes up constantly: the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act No. 8 of 2022 made substantial changes to the principal Act, but it does not touch Part VII at all. Its amendment sequence runs from section 64 straight to the Part VIII heading and sections 100 onward. Every section quoted in this guide is still the operative law.

The number that should change how you buy cover

Here is the part almost nobody tells drivers. Section 88(1) sets the minimum a compulsory policy must cover. The policy must be issued by a registered insurer, and it must insure against liability for the death of or bodily injury to any person arising out of the use of the vehicle on a road, to an amount of at least:

• 166,700 fee units in respect of any one person killed or injured; and
• 333,350 fee units in respect of any one accident, or series of accidents arising out of any one event.

At forty ngwee per fee unit, that is roughly K66,680 per person and K133,340 per event.

Sit with those figures for a moment. K66,680 is the legal floor for a human life or a permanently disabling injury. It will not fund a long ICU admission. It will not fund a spinal injury. It will not replace the lifetime earnings of a breadwinner. It is a floor designed so that some payment exists, not a figure that makes anybody whole.

This single fact is the strongest argument in Zambian motor insurance, and it cuts in both directions:

• As the driver at fault, anything a court awards above your policy limit comes out of your own pocket. The policy stops; your liability does not.
• As the victim, if the driver who hit you carried only the statutory minimum, that may be the ceiling on what you can recover from the insurer, no matter how severe your injuries.

Whenever you compare quotes on our car insurance comparison, the limit of third-party liability is the number to read first. The premium difference between a policy at the statutory floor and one with a meaningfully higher limit is usually far smaller than the gap in protection.

The three levels sold in Zambia

Zambian insurers sell motor cover in three tiers. The names are used consistently across the market, and the differences are real.

Act Only. The bare legal minimum under section 86. It covers third-party death or bodily injury and nothing else. Section 88 requires only this. Read the proviso carefully, because it carves out two things even within that narrow scope: the policy need not cover death or injury to a person in the employment of the insured, where that death or injury arises out of and in the course of that employment; and it need not cover any purely contractual liability.

Full Third Party. Act Only plus third-party property damage — the other driver's car, the wall, the shopfront, the livestock. This is the step most Zambian drivers underestimate. Act Only pays nothing at all towards the vehicle you damaged.

Comprehensive. Everything above, plus damage to your own vehicle, and typically theft, fire, and natural perils such as storm and flood. Cover for the insured's own emergency medical expenses is commonly included, but the detail varies by insurer and you must read the schedule.

There is no fourth secret tier and no legal category between these. If an agent describes something else, ask which of the three it is.

What Act Only will not do: a worked scenario

Abstract cover levels are hard to feel. Put numbers on it.

You are driving in Lusaka with Act Only cover. You lose concentration and hit a stationary vehicle, which is pushed into a shop frontage. The other driver suffers a broken leg. Your own car needs a new front end.

• The other driver's broken leg. Covered — this is third-party bodily injury, exactly what Act Only exists for, subject to the policy limit.
• The other driver's car. Not covered. Property damage. You pay for it.
• The shop frontage. Not covered. Property damage. You pay for it.
• Your own car. Not covered. Act Only never covers your own vehicle. You pay for it.

Three of the four bills land on you personally. A modest repair to another car plus a shop window is very easily a multiple of what a year of Full Third Party would have cost.

We are not going to publish premium figures, and you should distrust any Zambian site that does. Motor premiums are rated on the vehicle's value, its age and model, the driver's age and claims history, where the car is kept overnight, and the excess you accept. A quote written for someone else tells you nothing about your own. Get at least three written quotes for the same level of cover and the same excess, then compare.

If a repair bill has already landed and you were uninsured for it, understand what you are choosing between before you borrow — our guides on borrowing money safely and the personal loan comparison set out the questions to ask. And if you are still at the buying stage, run the numbers on our vehicle finance calculator with the insurance premium included, not bolted on afterwards.

Rights the Act gives you when someone else hits you

Part VII is not only a set of obligations. It hands victims several rights that are rarely used because almost nobody knows they exist.

You can sue the insurer directly. Section 90(1) entitles any person with a claim against an insured driver to recover, in their own name, directly from the insurer, up to the amount covered by the policy. You do not have to chase the driver, win, and then hope they pay. You can go to the insurer.

But that right expires in three years. The same section is explicit: the right to recover directly from the insurer "shall terminate upon the expiration of a period of three years from the date upon which the claimant's cause of action against the person insured arose." Legal proceedings already commenced within that period are unaffected. Three years from the accident, not from when you got around to it. This is the single most important deadline in this guide.

Policy small print cannot be used to dodge you. Section 91(1) renders of no effect any condition in a compulsory policy saying that no liability arises, or that liability ceases, if some specified thing is done or omitted. The insurer may still be able to recover that money back from its own policyholder afterwards — but as the third party, you are not the one who loses out.

Bus and taxi passengers cannot sign their rights away. Section 92 makes void any contract for carrying a passenger in a public service vehicle that purports to negate or restrict liability for death or injury to passengers while being carried in, entering, or alighting from the vehicle. A notice on a bus wall disclaiming liability for passenger injury has no legal effect.

The hospital gets paid too. Under section 93(1), where an insurer makes a payment for death or bodily injury to someone who was treated in hospital, the insurer must also pay the hospital the expenses reasonably incurred in providing that treatment. The Minister may prescribe the amounts by statutory instrument.

At the roadside and after a crash

Section 95 sets out duties that carry real consequences if you get them wrong.

On police demand. Any person driving on a road — or whom a police officer reasonably believes was driving when an accident occurred, or reasonably suspects of a motor-vehicle offence — must, on being required by a police officer, give their name and address and the name and address of the vehicle's owner, and produce their certificate of insurance. Failing to do so is an offence.

The seven-day grace period. You are not convicted for failure to produce alone if, within seven days of the date production was required (or a longer period the officer specifies), you produce or otherwise furnish the certificate at the police station you nominated at the time. Nominate a station you can actually get to.

After an injury accident: twenty-four hours. Section 95(2) is stricter. Where an accident involving personal injury to another person occurs and the driver does not produce the certificate at the scene to a police officer or to a person with reasonable grounds for requiring it, the driver must, as soon as possible and in any case within twenty-four hours, report the accident at a police station or to a police officer and produce the certificate. The same seven-day saving applies to the production itself, but the twenty-four-hour reporting duty is separate. Miss it and you have committed an offence regardless of who caused the crash.

Owners must answer questions. Under section 95(3) the owner must give such information as is required on behalf of the Inspector-General of Police to determine whether the vehicle was being driven in contravention of section 86. Failure is an offence.

Two related provisions catch people out. Section 98 bars a licensing officer from issuing or transferring a vehicle licence unless a certificate of insurance or security is produced — so cover has to be in place before the paperwork, not after. And section 96 lets a Customs Officer refuse to permit an uninsured vehicle into Zambia by road at all.

Before you pay a premium: five checks

1. Is the insurer registered? Section 88(1)(a) requires the policy to be issued by a registered insurance company. The Pensions and Insurance Authority (PIA) publishes the list of licensed entities and is reachable on +260 211 251401/05 or pia@pia.org.zm. An unregistered "policy" does not satisfy section 86 — you are still driving uninsured.
2. Get the certificate of insurance. Section 94 obliges the insurer, on issuing cover, to give you a certificate in the prescribed form for each vehicle or trailer. This is the document police ask for. A receipt is not a certificate. A WhatsApp message is not a certificate.
3. Read the third-party limit. Not the premium — the limit. Ask in writing whether it is the statutory minimum or higher, and what it costs to raise it.
4. Check who is covered to drive. Section 86 attaches to the user. If other people drive the car, confirm in writing that they are covered.
5. Check the excess. On comprehensive cover the excess decides whether a claim is worth making at all. Ask for it as a kwacha figure, not a percentage you have to compute under pressure.

One thing insurance in Zambia does not come with: a state backstop for the insurer itself. The Deposit Protection Scheme that covers K250,000 per depositor per institution applies to deposits at licensed deposit-taking institutions, not to insurance policies — we set out exactly what it does and does not reach in is my money protected. Insurer solvency is supervised by the PIA, which is a different thing from a guarantee. Choosing a registered, established insurer matters.

Crossing the border

The long title of the Road Traffic Act expressly provides for implementing "the Protocol on Third Party Motor Vehicle Insurance Scheme adopted by the Member States of COMESA" — the COMESA Yellow Card.

The Yellow Card is a third-party motor liability certificate recognised across participating COMESA states, standard in appearance so border officials recognise it on sight. Zambia is among the issuing countries, and neighbours including Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi, DR Congo and Mozambique participate in the scheme. It covers third-party bodily injury and death, third-party property damage, and emergency medical expenses, with the detail varying by issuing country.

You buy it from your own Zambian insurer before you travel, not at the border. The cost depends on how long you will be outside Zambia, the size of the vehicle, and the requirements of the countries you are entering, so ask your insurer for a written quote for your specific trip. Your domestic Zambian policy on its own does not cover you across the border.

If the insurer will not pay

The PIA's published process has two steps, and skipping the first will get you sent back.

Step one: the insurer's own complaints process. Complainants are required to lodge the complaint first with the service provider, through its internal complaints handling mechanism. Put it in writing. Keep the date. Ask for a written response.

Step two: escalate to the PIA. If the complaint is not resolved within the prescribed timeframe, it may be escalated to the Authority for intervention. The PIA is at Stand No. 4618 Lubwa Road, Rhodes Park, Lusaka, on +260 211 251401/05, insurance line +260 950 136662, or pia@pia.org.zm.

Keep the accident report from the police, the certificate of insurance, the policy schedule, photographs, repair quotations, and every piece of correspondence with dates. Claims are won on paperwork.

And keep the section 90 three-year clock in mind throughout. A complaint sitting unresolved with an insurer does not stop time running on your direct right of recovery.

Frequently asked questions

Is third-party motor insurance actually compulsory in Zambia, or only for certain vehicles? It is compulsory. Section 86(1) prohibits using — or permitting anyone to use — a motor vehicle or trailer on a road without a policy or security covering third-party risks that complies with Part VII. Section 86(3) provides separately for Government vehicles, with the cover prescribed by the Minister in consultation with the Agency.

What is the maximum fine for driving without insurance? Section 86(2) sets a maximum of three thousand penalty units, or imprisonment up to twelve months, for a first offence; and seven thousand five hundred penalty units, or twelve months, or both, for a repeat offence. At the fee and penalty unit value of forty ngwee set by SI No. 25 of 2024, that is about K1,200 and K3,000 respectively. These are court maximums, and the unit value can be changed by statutory instrument.

I was hit by an insured driver. Do I have to sue the driver first? No. Section 90(1) lets you recover directly from the insurer in your own name, up to the amount covered by the policy. Your rights against the insurer are generally no greater than the insured's, and the right to recover directly ends three years after your cause of action arose.

My employee was injured driving the company vehicle. Will the compulsory policy pay? Not necessarily. The proviso to section 88(1) says a compulsory policy is not required to cover liability for the death of, or bodily injury to, a person in the employment of the insured where it arises out of and in the course of that employment. That exposure is normally handled through workers' compensation and employer liability cover, not the motor policy. Check your schedule rather than assuming.

Does my Zambian policy cover me driving into Zimbabwe or DR Congo? Generally no. You need a COMESA Yellow Card, bought from your Zambian insurer before you travel. The Act expressly provides for implementing the COMESA third-party motor insurance protocol.

Is comprehensive cover worth it on an older car? It depends on what the insurer will actually pay out. Comprehensive settles your own vehicle at market value less the excess, so on a low-value car the sum you could recover may be close to the premium plus excess. Full Third Party is often the better trade on an older vehicle, because the open-ended risk is what you owe other people — and that risk does not shrink as your car ages. Our car insurance comparison and the broader guide to insurance in Zambia set out how to weigh this, and if the real exposure is what happens to your dependants, life cover is the more direct answer than an upgraded motor policy.

Sources: Road Traffic Act No. 11 of 2002, Part VII (ss. 86-99); Road Traffic (Amendment) Act No. 8 of 2022; Fees and Fines (Fee and Penalty Unit Value) (Amendment) Regulations, SI No. 25 of 2024; Pensions and Insurance Authority; COMESA Yellow Card Scheme.

Last reviewed: September 2026. General information, not financial, tax or legal advice.