Local domain registration in Zambia: How to register a .co.zm domain

Like many  African countries, information around local domain registration in Zambia is hard to find. Your typical business or individual who just wants to register a local domain and start creating content, has no readily available information online to do so. And as a sad result, most creators of content end up just going for the .com domains which are way easier (and cheaper) to get.

We thought we would help with some steps to doing so:

Who registers domains in Zambia?

Domain registration in Zambia is done through  Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Unfortunately, to the best our knowledge, no ISP offers online registration of domains yet. Or even allowing customers to search if a domain is available. Here’s a list of the registrars:

1	Zamtel
2	Airtel Zambia Limited
3	MTN Zambia Limited
4	Iway Africa Zambia Limited
5	Africonnect Zambia Limited
6	Wimax Zambia Limited*
7	Pronet Africa Limited
8	Morse Communications*
9	iBurst Zambia Limited*
10	Foris Telecom *
11	Comium Data Zambia Limited*
12	MTN Business Solutions Zambia Limited
13	Post link Limited
14	Quick Edge Limited
15	Coppernet solutions
16	Zamnet Communications Systems Limited
17	Real Time Zambia
18	Preworx Limited
19	Acme Technology Limited
20	Koza Telecomms Limited
21	Internet Technologies Zambia Limited
22	A-Plus Technologies
23	Transaction Payment Solutions

Table sourced from ZICTA

Checking if a domain is available:
There’s a work around to checking if a domain is available. A South African service called DotAfrica, also provides domain registration for Zambian domains. There could actually be more outside Zambia that do this. But like all external registrars, the registration comes with a steep price tag – K2,500 (EUR 342) in DotAfrica’s case. That doesn’t however mean that you can’t use them to just check if the Zambian domain you’re interested is available or not. And then go on to register it ‘manually’ here in Zambia.

What you will need to register
First, you will need to be resident here. If a business, you will need to have operations here, otherwise why would you need a Zambian domain? So basically, some proof that your business or self is located in Zambia. We checked with one large ISP, iConnect, and they told us it costs K150.00. It takes upto 48 hours to activate a new domain, and possible a week to transfer an existing domain. The other things required are: full Name, name of organisation, physical address, name servers if separate, and domain name.

The price of local domains
The price of a local domain really depends on who you are registering with. We have contacted some of the other ISPs to get their rates which will be published on this website once received. Nonetheless, iConnect charges K150.00 annually.