LUSAKA, Zambia

Zambia's Information and Communications Technology Authority on Wednesday announced an initiative to de-register over half a million mobile sim cards nationwide in an effort to curb cybercrime.

The body's acting Director-General Mwenya Mutale said de-registrations started after the end of a seven-day ultimatum for subscribers to regularize their details.

"It is illegal for any person to own more than 10 sim cards without justification," Mutale's office said in a statement, referring to regulations introduced in 2011 that required such subscribers to declare why they have so many sim cards.

Zambia has a mobile subscription base of over 17 million on three service providers MTN, Airtel, and the state-run Zamtel.

Russia's Beeline Telecoms is scheduled to become the country's fourth provider by June.

The sector has recently witnessed a rise in criminal scammers deceiving people, such as via false mobile money transactions in which subscribers are falsely told to have received money or won the lottery.