Money in Lusaka: cash, cards, mobile money, and tipping
The currency is the Zambian kwacha, and the single most useful thing to understand before you arrive is that Lusaka runs a dual-layer economy: an increasingly digitised card-and-app world at the malls, hotels, and established restaurants, and a cash world that still governs the markets, the smaller boutiques, and a good deal of everyday life. You will move between the two constantly, so the question is rarely cash or card but knowing which one a given counter expects.
Visa and Mastercard are widely accepted across the city, and the one habit worth keeping is to make sure your card stays in sight during a transaction. Step outside the malls and the sit-down restaurants, though, and you will want kwacha in hand, and specifically in smaller notes, because vendors often genuinely cannot break a hundred- or two-hundred-kwacha bill, and the change becomes its own small negotiation. For cash, the most secure approach is to draw from ATMs at the established banks, with Stanbic, FNB, and Standard Chartered the names to look for.
The system that quietly underpins everything is mobile money, either Airtel Money or MTN MoMo, which Zambians use for almost every transaction from a market stall to a high-end boutique to a rural lodge. As a short-stay visitor you most likely will not set up a wallet, but it is worth understanding that it exists and is close to universal, because a driver or a vendor may find it far easier than making change; if you are staying longer, a local SIM lets you activate a wallet at any of the branded kiosks on nearly every corner, top it up with cash, and pay by scanning a code. Beyond the capital, where ATMs thin out and card machines are rare, it stops being a convenience and becomes the practical answer.
On tipping, a service charge is sometimes already added at restaurants, and where it is not, rounding up for good service is appreciated rather than expected. For getting around the city, the reliable ride app is Yango, which fixes the price in advance and takes the haggling out of it; for a day of several stops, hiring a driver for the duration is far less fraught than chaining individual rides and lets you keep your own pace.
The working detail of money here, from current withdrawal limits to which machines to trust to what to carry and what to leave at the hotel, is the kind of thing the forthcoming Lusaka City Guide keeps current so you are not piecing it together on arrival. It launches soon; see what's coming and register your interest here.