By Edith Mwale, Lusaka, Zambia
With less than two months before the SIM card registration deadline, the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) has launched a nationwide campaign to educate subscribers on the importance of registering their SIM cards.
ZICTA is collaborating with all mobile service providers in the country-MTN, Airtel and Zamtel in carrying out the sensitization and carrying out on site sim card registration, according to a statement from ZICTA public relations manager Ngabo Nankonde.
ZICTA is urging subscribers not to wait for the habitual last minute rush to register their SIM cards.
ZICTA has been criticized for its laxity in carrying out the campaigns on SIM card registration from the time the exercise was started over a year ago. But the organization is now going round provinces carrying out the campaigns in hopes it will increase awareness and result in increased number of those registering their SIM cards.
So far, ZICTA has not given an update on how many subscribers have registered their SIM cards.
Three months ago, however, the minister of Communications announced there were only about four million people that had registered their SIM cards. Zambia has close to eight million mobile phone subscribers out of a population of 13 million people.
In consultation with the Ministry of Communications, ZICTA has set December 31 this year as the deadline for SIM card registration.
