The Zambia Information Communication Technology Authority – ZICTA – has disclosed that it has switched off or de-activated about 2.1 million mobile phone lines after a clean up exercise following a spike in mobile money scams which the country has been experiencing.
ZICTA acting Corporate affairs manager Hanford Chaaba disclosed in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times -ZBT- that 2.1 million SIM cards have been deactivated with only about 289 users managing to normalized their SIM cards, while about 2, 256 SIM cards were able to be claimed.
Chaaba further revealed that Zambia has 20.2 million of the registered SIM cards as of December 2021, which is about the size of the population. This is mainly due to some users carrying multiple phone lines as well as usage in WiFi gadgets.
ZICTA had in early February 2022 called for all users to regularize their mobile phone numbers registrations and that a timeline was given after which those phone lines that had not complied, the ICT Authority would deregister all non-compliant SIM cards across the country,
ZICTA has since reiterated that the members of the public should at all cost desist from buying already registered SIM cards as such is against the law and anyone found wanting risks being prosecuted.
Chaaba revealed that so far, ZICTA has encountered situations were innocent people have been implicated in investigations due to being in possession of SIM cards that were once used by criminals.
ZICTA confirmed with ZBT that the sim cards or phone lines that will not be claimed within the period of 90 days after deactivation will be allocated to other new users. The Authority has since appealed to members of the public to take time to regularise their SIM card registration to avoid losing their contact numbers and for the country to have a clean data base.
Some have accused ZICTA of being used by politicians to clean up the data base in-order to facilitate location and identification of anonymous social media commentators who are critical of government officials and politicians. Some say this move is an affront on free speech as most people who use anonymous phone lines will stay away from whistle blowing ills in government following this clean up. It remains to be seen how this will eventually pan out.
