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Zambia’s Development People’s Party (DPP) has called for the immediate withdrawal of the Petroleum Development and Management Bill, N.A.B 72 of 2026, arguing it will push indigenous Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) out of the market and hand control of the sector to multinational firms.
DPP president and petroleum expert, Kafula Mubanga, said the bill, presented to Parliament recently, introduces regulatory and financial requirements that he said local companies cannot meet.
“This is not modernization; it is an orchestrated exclusion of indigenous players,” Mubanga said in a statement. He added that the bill’s framework “intentionally raises the bar for compliance,” making it easier for multinational companies to dominate the sector.
Mubanga said small and medium-sized Zambian OMCs—described as the backbone of the local industry—risk collapse under what he called manufactured barriers disguised as reforms.
He warned that the proposed Uniform Petroleum Pricing Fund was financially unsustainable, especially after what he said was a 23 percent rise in diesel prices this month.
Local OMCs, he argued, would be forced to absorb high transport costs while waiting for reimbursement through a bureaucratic process.
Read More: Zambia raises diesel price for May, keeps petrol unchanged as global oil costs climb
“For a local firm, a delay in payment is a death sentence for their cash flow, whereas multinationals can survive on global credit lines. This is a slow-poison strategy to bankrupt local business,” he said.
Mubanga further criticised what he described as excessive discretionary powers given to the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Regulation Board, saying the setup would allow sudden changes in importation and distribution rules.
He also said the bill’s emphasis on designated supply corridors, including the TAZAMA pipeline, creates a “single point of failure” and exposes the sector to technical or geopolitical risks that could cripple local firms.
The DPP president said the absence of local content provisions was the bill’s “most egregious failure,” arguing that a true modernization effort would guarantee a share of the fuel supply chain for Zambian-owned companies.
Mubanga said the party would not allow the “extinction of the Zambian businessman through legislation,” calling for the bill’s immediate withdrawal and for broader consultations that protect local ownership and economic sovereignty.
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