Likewise in other developed countries, E-government in public administration in Zambia has been introduced with an aim to improve the state’s administrative efficiency and competency. These modern administrative approaches and opportunities from technological innovation will inevitably provide high-quality services and participation at all levels of the public administration. For this purpose, we established the e-Government portal, a virtual structure that enables access to electronic public services. The aim of the e-Government portal is to provide its users’ service through only one website and safe digital media. Since accessing the services through only one website makes access easier, high speed and system security are required too. The security system requires identity verification, e-Signature, and other modern technologies.

In order to benefit from a public electronic service – you have to first identify the service on the public electronic services portal, read and analyze the information available about the service and understand the requirements and conditions that are imposed in that sense, prepare the pre-required supporting documents stipulated, and, if it is the case – pay a legal fee/tax.

In order to benefit from a public electronic service – you have to authenticate on the portal. To authenticate – you have to prior obtain an electronic certificate that can be used for authentication and also as an electronic key for signing electronic documents, issued by a nationally certified body, and install it on your computer (or other suitable devices) to be able to use it when necessary.

Then, the process of authentification itself is very easy:

• you enter on the public electronic services portal
• you choose the method of authentification
• if you choose the traditional authentification way – then you enter requested credentials, otherwise
• you make use of your authentication certificate, selecting it when prompted by the portal system and entering the necessary pin.

You may use the payment solution integrated into this portal, a solution through which you can pay off public services with any payment instrument of your choice, such as credit card, internet banking or cash.

In order to get support in any issues you encounter using this portal, you can call the Support call-center at the following phone number: +260 000 000.

Digital Signature is a process that guarantees that the contents of a message have not been altered in transit.

When you, the server, digitally sign a document, you add a one-way hash (encryption) of the message content using your public and private key pair.

Your client can still read it, but the process creates a “signature” that only the server’s public key can decrypt. The client, using the server’s public key, can then validate the sender as well as the integrity of message contents.

Whether it’s an email, an online order or a watermarked photograph on eBay, if the transmission arrives but the digital signature does not match the public key in the digital certificate, then the client knows that the message has been altered.