Commuters pay more from this weekend. The Road Transport and Safety Agency has approved an upward adjustment of bus fares nationwide, effective Friday 9 October, following a request by the Bus and Taxi Owners Association of Zambia.
The approval was made under Section 107(11) of the Road Traffic Act, Chapter 464 of the Laws of Zambia, as amended by Act No. 8 of 2022, RTSA said in a statement.
The approved increases
- Intercity routes — 7.0% average increase
- Inter-mine routes — K3.50
- Local routes, Lusaka — K2.00
- Peri-urban routes, Lusaka and other towns — K3.00
- Local routes, Copperbelt and other towns — K2.00
The agency directed all bus operators to revise their fares accordingly and to display the fare charts in every bus and bus station, and advised passenger-transport operators to adhere to the approved fares.
The adjustment follows the Energy Regulation Board's fuel-price increase of 30 September, which added K6.17 to a litre of petrol and K6.41 to diesel. News Diggers reports that petrol moved from K25.29 a litre in September to K31.46 in October, and diesel from K26.86 to K33.27 — rises the ERB attributed to the reinstatement of excise duty after the expiry of the tax waiver, sustained geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and the depreciation of the kwacha.
The fare rise is the second leg of a squeeze this desk has tracked all month: the excise duty returned to the pump at the start of October, and the bus operators argued their costs had moved with it. RTSA has an agreed pricing model intended to prevent reactionary fare changes in response to marginal fuel movements; this month's fuel jump was anything but marginal.
What commuters actually pay will vary by route and operator, but the fare charts now posted in buses and stations are the reference point — and RTSA has said operators must stick to them.
Sources: Mwebantu, “RTSA Approves Bus Fare Hike Effective Today” (9 Oct 2026); News Diggers, “RTSA approves bus fare hike” (10 Oct 2026).