By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

OVER K820 million of annual revenue has been collected by the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) as at end of November 2021.
This is against the annual revenue collection target of more than K372 million as stipulated in the 2021 National Budget, representing an increase of 125 percent.
ZICTA collects various regulatory fees emanating from the discharge of its mandate provided for under the Information and Communications Technology Act No. 15 of 2009, the Postal Services Act No. 22 of 2009, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act No 4 of 2021 and the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act No. 2 of 2021.
The performance represented a favourable variance of 125 percent when compared to the cumulative target of over K366 million set for the same period, ZICTA acting Director General, Eng. Mutale Mwenya has said.
Eng. Mwenya described the year 2021 as exceptional in ZICTA’s efforts to complement the Government’s revenue generation activities,
This, he explained in a statement, was mainly supported by the peculiar one-off offer of the high demand spectrum to the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).
“The Authority has a revenue collection target for the year ending December 31, 2021 amounting to K372, 582,186 as stipulated in the 2021 National Budget. However, I am delighted to state that the Authority has already exceeded this target as it had collected a total of K826,744,813 as at end of November, 2021,” Eng. Mwenya said.
Meanwhile, Eng. Mwenya warned members of the public to refrain from engaging in SIM Boxing for making calls as this did not only deprive Government of much needed resources, but also attracts hefty fines to would be offenders.
He said ZICTA recorded an adverse variance of 30 percent on international termination fees derived from international incoming traffic minutes where the actual calling minutes were less than the budget.
“The budgeted minutes were 22,382,288, against the actual 14,049,540 minutes resulting in an adverse variance of 8,332,748 minutes,” Eng. Mwanya said.
Eng. Mwenya attributed the adverse variance to cheaper substitutes such as WhatsApp, Viber, Facetime and Skype which are being utilised more than the traditional mode of making circuit switched voice international calls as well as fraudulent practices such as SIM boxing and other alternative calling procedures.